


Die Another Day

by wildestoftales



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-07 19:23:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 39,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4275111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildestoftales/pseuds/wildestoftales
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Liam Payne is excellent at what he does - he works effectively, is quick on his feet as well as precise, and never lets emotions get the best of him. He plans on carrying on like that during his newest mission.</p><p>And it would have worked out just fine - if it hadn't been for Agent Nick Grimshaw and Louis Tomlinson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Die Another Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [words_unravel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/words_unravel/gifts).



> I absolutely fell in love with this prompt right away and I hope I did it justice. All of your prompts were amazing and I was/am every excited to write for you! :) Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Small disclaimer: Title is blatantly borrowed from a James Bond movie. That I have not watched. Cause why not.
> 
> I want to give two shoutouts this time. The first one goes to my incredibly patient beta. (All remaining mistakes are mine, of course.) The second shoutout is to my self-appointed handholder. Thanks for cheering me on and believing in me! You've both been amazing. :)
> 
>  **Warnings:** Violence, guns, hospital, mention of drug use, a bunch of other topics you'd expect from a secret agent AU, I guess.

Liam meets Nick first.

–

Liam is only in his second year, still firmly in the theory part of the academy training. Well, if you ignore the three weekend practical training courses they've had. They don't really count, though, Liam thinks. It had just been a lot of sleeping outside in the cold and crawling through the mud.

He'll be getting more practical experience next year. That's when he'll be done with most of the theory part and his real training will begin.

Liam can't wait. Theory has never been his strong suit.

Agent Grimshaw walks into his second course at 10 am on a Monday morning; Attack and Defence, held by Agent Byrne. He’s got a pair of aviators propped up on his dark quiffed hair, and he's wearing the typical dark, nondescript agent uniform as well as a wide smile.

“Hiya, kiddos,” he says and sits down on top of their teacher's table, legs crossed at the ankles.

Agent Grimshaw is roughly half the age of all the agents they've met so far. Sure, it's because he's still an active agent in the field – only a few years older than Liam and his classmates – while their teachers are mostly retired. Still, there's something about him. 

“Forget everything you've learnt so far,” Agent Grimshaw says, voice deep and dramatic. Then he cracks up.

“Just kidding, of course. Agent Byrne is teaching you very valuable lessons, I'm sure. That's what she did for me when I was a newbie, at least.”

He throws Agent Byrne a smile which she returns with a raised eyebrow.

Liam shares a look with Zayn who looks intrigued despite himself.

“Now, for real, though. I'm here to tell you all a bit about the field work. As you probably know, the large majority of you will drop out during your third year,” he explains and follows it up with a shrug. “So why's that? Well, that's when we really get down to business around here. You'll be out in the field, actually getting practice, on your first micro-missions.”

He drags a hand through his hair – which continues to look carefully tousled and not messed up at all – and says, “It's fun, personally I absolutely loved that bit! But it's also the part where it becomes clear who is made for this kind of life and who isn't. It really just depends on what type of person you are. When it gets serious, you either function or you don't. And obviously we only need the first kind of people around here.”

Agent Grimshaw stops and takes a look around. They've all heard this before, dozens of times, the first time being before they had even signed up. It scares the living shit out of Liam – what if he's the second kind of person? What if in an emergency he just kind of – freezes? There's no way to tell for sure before third year actually rolls around, and it worries Liam to no end. 

Zayn usually tells him that he knows Liam will always keep a cool head but Liam is not so sure. It's easy to say for someone like Zayn who is perpetually relaxed, no matter what life may throw at him.

“Aw, don't look so pale,” Agent Grimshaw says, smiling at them. He's got a nice smile. It sets him even further apart from most of the agents they know so far. They're all intimidating and strict. While Agent Grimshaw probably isn't someone you'd like to cross either, he also seems like the type of guy you could go for a pint with. 

He's like a breath of fresh air.

“I'm just trying to scare you, really. It's a tradition, kind of. Anyhow, that's not why I'm here.”

They spend the rest of class partnered up, trying out different defence techniques. They've all practised those before but this time Agent Grimshaw asks them not to attack immediately but rather to wait a bit to try and catch their partner by surprise. It's a bit of a futile effort in Liam's case because Zayn's reflexes have always been, from day one, quicker than his own. He doesn't manage more than to knock him to the floor once and have him stumble and almost lose his balance twice.

Agent Grimshaw slowly makes his rounds through the pairs of students, correcting and adjusting their techniques. When he finally arrives by their side, Liam feels his face flush uncomfortably. He's always been intimidated by authority figures, is all.

“You doing alright?” Agent Grimshaw asks Zayn with a smile.

Zayn nods. “Yeah, Liam's really good, I can never surprise him at all.”

That's a bit of an exaggeration, if you ask Liam, but he doesn't dare say so.

“Liam?” Agent Grimshaw asks, turning towards him.

“Uh, Payne. Liam Payne,” Liam introduces himself quickly because they're generally all addressed by their last names. The ‘agent’ won't be added to it until they complete their training. If they do complete it, that is.

Agent Grimshaw laughs loudly. “Oh, that's brilliant! I really hope you make it. Agent Payne, that's some movie stuff,” he says. Then, he continues slowly, “Agent Payne – here to deliver what his name promises. Nomen est omen, and all that.”

Liam is so startled he laughs. It's not like he's hearing that joke for first or even the tenth time. There's something about Agent Grimshaw, though. He seems so carefree, despite all the responsibility on his shoulders and the fact that he most-likely risks his life day after day for the missions.

That's the kind of agent Liam wants to be, he realises. He doesn't want to be grim, rough, and weighed down by all he's seen. He still wants to make jokes about secret agent movies and laugh so loudly people turn their heads.

Before he can reply – though he wouldn't know what – Agent Grimshaw attacks him. 

It's the same move they've been practising all throughout the lesson but this time it actually does take Liam by surprise. As Agent Grimshaw tries to kick his legs out under him to get him to fall, Liam barely manages to jump up at the last moment. He capitalises on Agent Grimshaw's only second-long confusion by grabbing his arm and pushing it behind his back, twisting it until Agent Grimshaw's back is pressed to his Liam's chest.

“Alright, alright,” Agent Grimshaw says, sounding joyful despite having lost. “We've got a talent here.”

He turns his head sideways to look at Liam and his bright grin is so close to Liam's face that he doesn't know what to do for a moment.

“Thanks,” Liam says quietly and lets go of him.

–

Three and a half years later, Liam enters the room he's been sent to for briefing and is faced with Agent Grimshaw again. He hasn't changed a lot compared to all those years ago when he visited Liam's class. A bit more tired, perhaps, but there's still a sparkle in his eyes.

There's also the matter of the blood pouring out of one of Agent Grimshaw's clavicles as a doctor calmly operates on it. It looks like a typical bullet wound. 

Liam doesn't let his eyes linger on it.

Instead, he looks at Agent Grimshaw's face.

Agent Grimshaw frowns back at him. “A newbie?” he asks, eyeballing Liam.

It's not like Liam had expected him to remember some random student he'd practised with once – but, still. He doesn't need to sound so distasteful, does he?

“Best of his year,” Agent Cowell says. “Basically completed his last mission alone.”

Liam wants to protest. It hadn't been his team member's fault that the nerve gas sprayed into their van had knocked them right out or that Liam as the driver had been the only one next to an open window, thus spared from it. It had only been right to check their vital signs and try to finish their mission alone. They had come so far, had already made their way into where the princess of some country Liam couldn't pronounce had been held. She'd been helpful, too, really brave and quick on her feet.

So, really, it hadn't been all on Liam.

He doesn't say anything though, just nods in thanks. Zayn always tells him to accept praise because he deserves it. Liam isn't so sure about that but he tries.

Agent Grimshaw looks over to where the supervisors are seated – Agent Cowell, Agent Cole, and Agent Ora. They all manage to look even stricter than usual.

“That may be, but still. I can take care of myself better than he can.”

Liam still hasn't been told what his mission even contains.

“You won't be using that arm for three weeks at least,” the doctor calmly says as he finally pulls out the offending bullet. A stream of blood follows it. Agent Grimshaw's lower lip is turning white where he's biting hard on it to keep from making a sound.

“Great,” Agent Grimshaw says after a tense moment and after the blood flow has slowed down significantly. “Louis will kill me. He said not to get myself shot again.”

Agent Cole, surprisingly, smiles at that.

Liam doesn't even know who Louis is.

“Look, Grimmy, don't be an idiot. We're already making an exception for you.”

“Yeah, wonderful, thanks,” Agent Grimshaw mumbles. As the doctor takes out the white bandage, he makes a face. “Don't you have any blue ones anymore? Yellow? Or maybe pink, I've always loved the pink bandages.”

“You're not a child,” the doctor says but he stuffs the white bandage back into his doctor's bag and pulls out a red one instead.

The supervisors turn towards Liam.

“Agent Payne, your next mission is a bit unusual but we think you're the right person for it. As you can see, Agent Grimshaw's last mission, completed only a few hours ago, went a bit wayward and--”

“Excuse me? Who put more than 85 percent of _The Graves_ behind bars? That's what you call wayward, Cowell?”

“You got shot,” Agent Cowell replies matter-of-factly. “Plus, the rest of them are still out there. That's the problem. We need Agent Grimshaw to rest but we also know they'll try to hunt him down and take revenge for their gang members. They've always been big on their codes and those require revenge to the death. That's why we need you to protect him, twenty-four seven.”

Liam breathes out.

“You'll get all the relevant information about Agent Grimshaw's last mission and all the information we have about the still missing members of _The Graves_ in your file. Should already be in there, actually. Make yourself familiar with it before you start,” Agent Cole continues. “You'll move in with Agent Grimshaw so you can be there when needed. There'll be two more people at the house at all times to watch from outside but you're our main guy on this. Any questions?”

Liam shakes his head. 

Agent Grimshaw doesn't seem thrilled.

Actually, there's a question still on Liam's mind. He hesitates before going for it. “Actualy, I have a question. I'm just wondering. That's not usual procedure, is it?”

The usual procedure is, as far as Liam knows, an ordinary witness protection program. Agent Grimshaw would get a new identity and be moved to a new, unknown location and go into hiding.

Agent Ora gives him a smile that does wonders to calm his nerves.

“It's not,” she agrees. “But we're fairly sure this won't be for more than one month, at most. They're like headless chickens without their leader--”

“Knocked him out first,” Agent Grimshaw interrupts.

“--so we're hoping to catch the rest of them quickly and swiftly as well. We're actually hoping Agent Grimshaw will act as our bait, somewhat.”

“Plus,” Agent Cole says, giving Agent Grimshaw a look Liam can't decipher. “There's some special circumstances to consider.”

Liam nods. It all sounds fairly mysterious, still, but he hopes reading through the files he's given will create some clarity.

“Will three hours be enough for you to pack and familiarise yourself with the information you've been given?” It's not a question, really, but Liam nods in agreement at Agent Cowell anyway.

“Cool. See you at home in three hours, then, I guess,” Agent Grimshaw says, smiling at Liam for the first time as he hops off the examination table he's been sitting on so far. The bright red makes the bandage even more prominent and he's cradling his left arm awkwardly to his chest.

There's also a bright red spot of blood on the paper towels on the examination table. The doctor makes quick work of bundling them up and binning them.

“You're not leaving until Agent Payne returns to accompany you,” Agent Cole says. “So get comfortable.”

Agent Grimshaw rolls his eyes. “Can't you just let me go home? I haven't seen Louis in more than a month.” 

After a moment – and three pairs of raised eyebrows in his direction –, Agent Grimshaw complies and leans back against the examination table. Then, he points at Liam. “You – hurry.”

–

“So you're just moving in with the guy?” Zayn asks.

Liam gives him a look. “You know I'm not supposed to tell you anything.”

He ignores that he's just done exactly that and continues throwing clothes into the open suitcase next to Zayn. A month at most is quite unspecific but Liam is used to those kinds of information. He just takes a bit of everything with him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Zayn replies and pulls off his beanie to throw it into the suitcase as well. Liam doesn't even wear beanies, usually, but he still appreciates the gesture. “But you know, like, that he has this boyfriend?”

Liam stops, a pair of boxer shorts and two shirts in his hands. “What?”

“Or husband? I can never remember. Harry mentioned him to me. You know, agent Styles.”

“So there's two people living there?” Liam asks slowly. He wasn't prepared for that. He's not good with new people. He's not even good with people he's known for ages, Zayn being the notable exception. Living with Agent Grimshaw is enough to get his blood racing – but someone else, an unknown, someone else, living there as well?

Liam sits down next to Zayn. He'd rather try and catch a few bloodthirsty serial killers on his own, to be quite honest.

Zayn takes the clothes from him and drops them into the suitcase.

“Louis,” Liam says, a slow realisation. “He mentioned a Louis. That must be him, right?”

Zayn shrugs. “I guess so. Don't frown, you'll get wrinkles. It's just a mission, you're not there to become their new best friend or anything.”

“Yeah.” That makes sense, Liam guesses.

“Plus, you already have a best friend. Who you'll leave all alone and lonely.”

Shaking his head, Liam pulls Zayn into a hug.

“You're being dramatic, I'm away all the time. As are you. If I come back and the bathroom's a mess like last time, we'll have words.”

Zayn kisses his cheek. “No, we won't,” he says. “Anyway, I'll come visit you. Maybe I'll sneak into the files and find out where Grimshaw lives so I can come knocking on your window, Romeo-style.”

Liam laughs. “Please don't.”

–

Agent Grimshaw looks paler than before when Liam gets back. He's relocated to one of the sofas in the rest area, lying down with his head on the arm rest.

“I hate pain meds,” he says in greeting, speech noticably slower than usual. “Make me all sluggish.”

“Me, too,” Liam agrees although that's not really the case. They tend to hype him up and jumble his speech more than anything. It's true, though, that he doesn't like them either.

“Ready to go, agent?” Liam asks, his suitcase by his feet. He's feeling awkward, shifting his weight from side to side like a guilty school kid. He's a professional – why can he never act like one except for when it's life and death?

“'m Grimmy. Or Nick, if you prefer. Lou calls me Nick. Call me loser, for all I care, but not agent. Not at home.”

Liam nods. He's heard a few people call him Grimmy so maybe that's his safest bet. Or perhaps he'll just avoid using his name altogether until he feels more comfortable. He hopes that will be soon.

“I'm Liam,” he says. He can't help but think back to when he had told Agent Grim- Nick his last name, back when he had been in training.

Nick laughs lightly. He heaves himself up. “I know. Now, Liam Payne, take me home, please.”

So Liam does.

–

Naturally, this means that he meets Louis second.

–

Suddenly, Liam is overwhelmingly glad that Zayn has warned him about the boyfriend Nick lives with. Naturally, he doesn't have any issues with it. Still, he can feel Nick's searching gaze on his face after he's greeted Louis with a hug and a thorough kiss. He's looking for a reaction, Liam guesses.

“That's Louis,” Nick says after a moment. “He's the special circumstances.”

Louis is smaller than both Nick and Liam. He's got fluffy brown hair and suspicious blue eyes. He's also shirtless and only in joggers. There are a bunch of tattoos on his arms and chest. Liam feels like it's probably rude to stare so he can't make out any of them in detail.

Louis ignores Liam. “What's that?” he asks, poking at Nick's bandage. “Got a piece cut off again? That's not the way to lose weight, Nicholas.”

The only reason Nick doesn't wince in pain is probably the local anaesthesia around the wound, Liam supposes.

Nick rolls his eyes so fondly that Liam feels the need to look away. He doesn't. “As if I need to lose weight, I'm in top form.”

Louis snorts.

“It's a bullet wound,” Nick says too quickly.

Louis frowns deeply. “Again? I told you to be careful and--”

“Babe,” Nick interrupts. “It's so good to see you. I missed you so much. So terribly. It was awful. I cried every night, promise. Ask Liam here – I mean, he wasn't with us on the mission but everyone knows, all the agents, how much I missed you.”

“Oh my god, shut up,” Louis says, hitting Nick on the shoulder that's not hurt.

His gaze lingers on Nick before he turns to Liam. “So you're Liam? What are you doing here?”

It's a blunt question.

“Uh,” Liam says intelligently.

Louis' gaze flits down to the suitcase at Liam's feet and then back to his face. He arches an eyebrow.

“Can we go sit down and then we'll explain?” Nick asks. “I'm hurt. I need to sit. Also, where are my dogs?”

Louis goes up on his toes to press a kiss to Nick's cheek. It's sweet. “Idiot,” he says. “Put them in the living room when the bell went. Pig has this thing where she starts going crazy when there's someone at the door. Don't know why.”

“You ruined her. I knew it! Never leaving the dogs with you again,” Nick says dramatically and stalks by Louis out of the hallway and towards – presumably – the living room.

It leaves Liam and Louis standing there. Liam is feeling more and more awkward as he waits for Louis to finish examining him.

Then, all of a sudden, his face goes soft. “Come on, then. Just leave your luggage there, we'll make Nick carry it in later.”

Liam must make a face of some kind because Louis grins and says, “Oh, don't look at me like that. I know he's hurt. And he knows it. Can't cut him slack once, cause he'll never do anything ever again.”

Liam doesn't know what to say to that. It's so clearly something only a long-time significant other would say. He just smiles, hoping it's enough of a reply.

After a moment, Louis raises his eyebrows slightly. “Alright. Come on through.”

They walk in to the living room to Nick lying on the beige carpet with two dogs on top of him, covering almost his entire body. Both are trying their best to get at Nick's face to lick it enthusiastically. One is a bull terrier and the other a labradoodle if Liam is not mistaken. It's a bit of an odd mixture, these two breeds.

All in all, Nick looks like his lungs are about to be crushed and he's enjoying it thoroughly.

“Meet my loves,” he says, short of breath.

Louis frowns, walks over to where Nick is lying, and shoos both the dogs off his chest. “You just got shot, you great big idiot,” he says and helps Nick sit up. His gentle movements betray his harsh tone. “Why would you let them climb all over you?”

Nick doesn't even dignify that with a response. He points at the slightly larger dog, a big mess of curly hair and huge brown eyes and says, “That's Bruce. He was Lou's first but he likes me better. Obviously. And the one lying on her back in front of you is Pig. She's mine. And she wants belly rubs.”

There's nothing to do but crouch down and grant Pig her wish. She yaps happily and Liam falls in love, just like that. “She's adorable. They both are,” he says and tries not to sound too excited about it. If everything about this mission goes pear-shaped – if Nick and Louis decide they don't like Liam at all and proceed to ignore him or worse – then at least he'll have two cute dogs to cuddle with. Liam gets along swimmingly with all animals.

Of course Liam knows that this is only a job, a mission like any other. But the truth is – it's really not. He'll be living with Nick and Louis, day and night, for a month or more. They're a proper family, all domestic with their dogs and their bickering. It's hard not to feel like an intruder.

Maybe Liam can just try and blend into the background.

“So wanna explain why you return from your mission with Liam here and all his belongings? Did you adopt him?” Louis asks Nick, a slight grin on his face. There's an edge to his voice, though. Just then, Liam notices Nick's hand on Louis' bum. He drags his gaze away as quickly as he can but Nick still catches him looking.

“Let's sit down,” Nick says.

–

It doesn't go very well.

Louis is livid. He keeps pacing back and forth. It's a rather spacious living room, with lots of room between the furniture, so at least he can walk more than two steps before being forced to turn around again. Pig keeps following him closely, getting in between his feet every once in a while. Bruce seems less energetic, opting to nap by Nick's feet instead.

“Are you really telling me you've got a bunch of revenge-crazy mass murderers hunting you and all they give you for protection is some new kid?”

“That's not very fair, he's not—”

“This isn't my first mission,” Liam interrupts. It's not something he makes a habit of, usually. He feels like he needs to defend himself, though, in this case. Besides, Nick had almost said the exact same thing upon first meeting him.

Both Nick and Louis look surprised. They probably hadn't expected him to say anything. Louis even looks somewhat shocked that Liam is still there, like he had forgotten all about him. His gaze was focused on Nick before, despite talking about Liam.

“I was very successful during my last one. I even,” he hesitates because he doesn't like bragging. He figures it's for a good cause now – plus, it's the truth. “I was the best one in my year when I graduated. Plus, Grimmy isn't anyone, he's perfectly capable of defending himself. So it's two agents, really, who are around at all times.”

“He just got shot. He can barely move his arms and you want him to defend himself?” Louis shoots back without missing a beat.

“No,” Liam says. “But losing one arm for now doesn't make him completely defenceless, either.”

Louis stops walking and is about to reply something angry and biting, his arms crossed over his chest, when Nick intervenes, “He's not the only one. There'll be two agents watching the house as well. He's just the one who'll be by my side in case they miss someone entering somehow. I’m under house arrest, by the way.”

Louis throws up his arms. “Great. Brilliant. Absolutely smashing. So I've got to deal with you being the focus of a manhunt of some crazy murderers, some random guy in my flat, more random guys watching us all day, and on top of all that, you’ll be a prissy whiny baby within two days because you're unable to deal with not leaving the house.”

“I'll protect him, I promise. No one will harm him,” Liam says, choosing to focus on the manhunt part.

Perhaps he sounds a bit too earnest because Nick cracks up laughing.

“You're sweet,” he says, almost as an afterthought. He pats Liam's shoulder, then gets up to walk over to Louis.

“I know this isn't ideal,” he starts.

“Wow, well spotted, genius.”

“But we can't change it for now. It's not like I did it on purpose. They'll get them as fast as they can. You know Cowell loves me, he'd never let any harm come to me.”

Louis rolls his eyes, though his stance loosens just the tiniest bit. “He tolerates you. At best.”

“Lies! Slander! He adores me.”

“It doesn't matter,” Louis says. “He's still just human and so are you and so is Liam over there. You're not super heroes, even if you like to think you are.” He sounds calmer than before, almost resigned. Liam tries not to breathe too loudly, not wanting to draw attention to himself again. He's got a feeling this is less about Louis being angry and more about him being scared.

Louis turns around and leaves the room, Pig hot on his heels.

There's a moment where nothing happens. Nick doesn't move and so Liam doesn't either. Bruce, of course, is still fast asleep. Liam envies him.

Then, Nick turns around to face Liam, the grin on his face too bright. “Well,” he says. “That went better than expected, I think.”

–

The next few hours are unbearably awkward.

Liam refuses to leave Nick's side – protecting him is why he's here after all. So he follows him around the house, even though he knows it's probably annoying.

Nick's face as he walks out of the bathroom to find Liam waiting for him only confirms that. To his credit, he manages something of a smile after his probably involuntary eye roll. It doesn't do anything to make Liam feel better.

“I'm sorry,” Liam blurts out.

“What for? I'm just glad you've not followed me into the loo, honestly,” he says, a playful smile on his lips. It seems genuine enough.

“No, uh. I wouldn't,” Liam assures him. “And that's not what I meant.”

“What for, then?”

Liam hasn't seen Louis for hours. The bedroom is the only room Nick hasn't shown him of their flat so Liam is assuming he's hiding in there. It's also possible he has left altogether.

“I'm sorry you're fighting because of me. I mean, you've only just been reunited, you shouldn't be fighting. Not because of me.”

Nick stares at him. Then, stares some more.

Not sure what to do with that, Liam shrugs uncomfortably. He can feel a flush coming on. “I mean...” He trails off.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah?”

“Alright,” Nick says, frowning. “First of all, we're not fighting. He's just upset. So basically he's just cuddling Pig a lot and he'll come back out when he's hungry.”

Liam assumes Nick knows Louis better than he does, so he tries to believe him. 

“Second of all,” Nick continues. “How is any of this your fault? I got myself shot. The team didn't manage to catch all of _The Graves_. Louis is being stupid about all of this. You? You're just doing your job. I mean, not gonna lie, you are a bit overbearing but we'll work on that. We've got time.”

“Work on that? You just said it's my job. I have to be by your side.”

“Yeah but our flat isn’t that big. You can go off and do your own stuff, too, you know.”

Liam is not too sure about that. He doesn't know what own stuff he's supposed to be doing, for a start.

Nick smiles at him. It's a nice smile.

“Wanna get started on tea? I'm hungry and maybe it'll get Lou to come out. I've missed his stupid face for too long,” Nick says.

Liam does want to get started on tea.

As Nick leads Liam into the kitchen, he explains, “Don't know if we even have enough to make tea. I'm not a bad cook at all, mind, so I always keep the kitchen stocked but when I'm gone, Louis just doesn't. I think he lives off cereal actually.” As if to demonstrate, Nick opens a cupboard. It's filled with all different kinds of cereal. Liam is impressed despite himself – it's like the cereal shelf of a small shop. “Terribly unhealthy. Don't know what he'd do without me.”

“Not be shit-talked behind my back in my own kitchen, that's for sure.”

Liam startles as Louis suddenly enters the kitchen, glaring at Nick.

“Hello, dickhead,” Nick replies happily. He walks back over to the kitchen door and pulls Louis into his side.

There's a strange sound. It takes Liam a second until he realises it's Pig's claws clicking on the hardwood floor of the hallway as she's running across it.

“Oh and you've released Pig from her hostage, too. Wonderful. Bruce will be glad.”

Louis rolls his eyes at Liam but he's smiling just the tiniest bit.

–

They end up deciding on spaghetti with a tomato sauce because it's one of the few things Louis bothers to cook for himself so all the ingredients are there. He's not unable to cook, Louis explains earnestly, as he drops way too much spaghetti into the pot, he just can't be bothered if it's just for him.

“You can't be bothered when it's for both of us, either,” Nick interrupts.

He gently shoves Louis aside to take over cooking himself.

Louis shrugs and comes to sit down next to Liam.

“Yeah, because you're here to do it, then,” Louis says, grinning cheekily.

Nick smiles back fondly.

Liam stares at his hands in his lap. He'd offered to help, actually, but he had been told to sit down as he's a guest. Liam is not sure he can be considered a guest if he's going to properly live here. There's no way he won't help with household chores, in any case. He hadn't wanted to argue the point just yet, though.

“So, Liam, tell me about you,” Louis says, nudging his shoulder. “You're James Bond, too?”

Liam smiles a bit. “Not exactly, we're more like--”

“Oi,” Nick interrupts. He can't properly use his left arm and it makes his movements look awkward. Liam itches to get up and help. “Don't destroy my image! I worked hard on that. We're very much James Bond.”

“Yeah,” Louis says and laughs. “The only reason I agreed to go out with this idiot at all was because I thought dating James Bond would be cool. As you can see, uni-me wasn't the smartest.”

They've been a couple since university, then. Or, at least, since Louis was a student. Liam would guess he's around his own age – younger than Nick, definitely, but uni might still be a few years back, then. Liam himself had been there for two years before starting at the academy. 

Liam isn't really good at maths but it definitely means they've been together for a while. It's not surprising at all. They act like an old married couple.

“Best decision of your life,” Nick says over the clanking noise of getting another pot out of a cupboard.

Louis stares at Nick's back as he cooks. He doesn't agree out loud but he might as well have from where Liam is sitting. It's there, written in the fondness in his eyes.

Dinner ends up being a less awkward affair than Liam had imagined. Nick is kind and funny and he keeps telling all kinds of anecdotes, most of them involving Louis and his antics to some degree. Many of them also feature Nick's or Louis' friends of which there seem to be so many that Liam keeps losing the plot. It's nice, still. Nick might just be doing it to keep Liam entertained or to calm him, Liam isn't sure, but it's working in any case.

Liam had liked Nick ever since he had first seen him at the academy, so it's hard not to feel comfortable in his company.

Pig and Bruce have taken to lying next to Nick's chair to beg for treats whenever the opportunity arises. Louis tells Nick repeatedly not to give them anything off the table but Nick just smiles widely, agrees, and drops two spots of Bologna sauce on the floor for them to lick up. 

It's Louis, really, who intimidates Liam. He's not even being mean or rude or anything like that. He's mostly teasing Nick and rolling his eyes a lot. Yet, sometimes he'll throw Liam these little assessing looks that he doesn't know what to do with. And other times he'll make a face at something Liam says. Liam can't figure out what he's doing or saying wrong to make Louis react like that. He feels wrong-footed, still, but he makes an effort towards ignoring it.

In the long run, he'll have to get along with both of them, after all.

–

Liam is absent-mindedly patting Bruce's head and trying to read a book Zayn had given him – A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which turns out not to really be Liam's thing, after all – when Louis walks into the kitchen.

He's not concentrating on the book very hard, anyway, since he needs to be aware of his surroundings and especially Nick in the other room. Plus, he's never been big on reading for pleasure. 

Louis stops just short of where Liam is sitting, hands on his hips.

“First things first,” he says. “You don't have to hide in the kitchen. That's stupid. You can come and sit with us in the living room.”

Liam opens his mouth to reply, but Louis barges on, “We're just watching the telly, to be honest. Nick is moaning about his shoulder a bit. Bound to be more interesting than to sit all alone at our kitchen table.”

Liam isn't sure what to say to that that's not a lie. He _is_ hiding. 

“I'm not alone,” he mutters. Bruce has his head rested on Liam's knees and his eyes closed in pleasure. Or because he's dozing, Liam's not sure. He's not alone, technically.

He's hiding partly because he feels like an intruder. Mainly, however, the reason is that he walked past the living room on his way to the toilet about an hour earlier, and had caught a glimpse of Louis on Nick's lap, both of them making out furiously. 

It's why he's not in the same room as them, even though he feels like he's already failing his mission.

He's not blaming them for it. They haven't seen each other in weeks and weeks. It's only natural. Liam just really doesn't want to be in the way or witness it any closer. 

“Also, I finished changing the sheets in the guest room. So whenever you want to go to bed, you're good to go,” Louis says, ignoring Liam's reply.

“You didn't have to do that.”

“I did. Nick can't because of his shoulder and it was really necessary,” Louis says, making a face. “Pig and Bruce sleep on that bed so the sheets were full of their hair. Well, Bruce's, mostly, but, you know. I mean, they haven't slept there since before Nick left for the last mission, but I hadn't bothered to change the sheets.”

It's awfully sweet, the realisation that the dogs probably sleep with Louis when Nick is gone. Maybe he feels lonely or cold or maybe he's just not used to sleeping alone anymore.

“Thank you,” Liam says sincerely. “But you really didn't have to do that. Grimmy showed me the flat earlier and the guest room is at the other end from where your bedroom is.”

Louis frowns.

“So I can't sleep there. I'd be too far away in case something happens.”

“What are you planning to do, roll up in front of our bedroom door like a guard dog?” There's laughter in Louis' voice. Liam isn't sure whether he's making fun of him.

“Of course not.” Liam doesn't mention that he had in fact briefly considered the logistics of dragging the mattress into the hallway to position it in front of the bedroom door. It's not a good plan. It might end up being in the way of their escape.

Plus, he doesn't actually want to hear what's going on in their bedroom more than he probably will anyhow.

“I'll take the sofa. The living room is closest to the door of the flat and it's next to your bedroom. I'll leave the living room door open. That'll be the best option, I suppose.”

Liam briefly wonders if he should consult Nick on this. He's a better strategist and a more experienced agent. Although he's fairly sure that this is, in fact, the best option.

“It's not even a pull-out!”

“That's fine,” Liam reassures him but Louis just huffs.

“We'll find a better solution,” he says decisively. “You gonna come with me now? Nick doesn't bite. Or is your book that interesting?”

Liam looks down at the still opened books in his hand. He's on page five but he can't remember anything of what happened on page one to four. 

He doesn't bother explaining that it's not necessarily Nick who scares him. Instead he gets up and follows Louis, leaving his book on the kitchen table. Bruce looks a bit betrayed when he has to get off Liam's knee but follows them quickly enough.

Nick only looks up for a brief moment. He's lounging on the couch, the bright red bandage a stark contrast to the simple grey shirt he must have put on at some point. Pig is sitting by his feet, playing with some kind of blue rope-y toy. Bruce immediately trots over and lies down next to her, not even bothering to fight her for her toy.

“Your favourite is out,” he says.

Liam doesn't understand.

“No way!” Louis protests, dropping down next to Nick, careful not to jostle him. “They kicked Mary off and kept that stupid band? Why are people idiots?”

Dropping down into the only armchair – and feeling thankful that there is an armchair – Liam looks over to the TV where the X Factor is just ending with a tearful young girl smiling bravely for the cameras.

“I like the band,” Nick says, although Liam suspects he might just be saying it to rile Louis up. He can't be sure, though.

“Because you have shit taste,” Louis replies easily. “Right, Liam? Mary has way more talent then those clowns combined?”

Liam looks back over at them. “I wouldn't know. I don't really watch it.”

Twin frowns meet him. “You don't watch it?” Louis echoes.

“Next week you will,” Nick promises. “So you better prepare yourself. Louis gets intense about it.”

“Like I'm the only one,” Louis says, looking disgruntled, just as Nick presses a kiss to his temple.

They settle down, but only for a moment.

“Did you finish changing the sheets for Liam?” Nick asks.

“I did, no thanks to you. But he doesn't want to sleep in the guest room.” Louis sounds accusing like it's some sort of terrible offence.

So Liam explains his reasons a second time.

Louis huffs. Again. “See? It's stupid.”

“It's not,” Liam says quietly.

“No, it's really not,” Nick agrees. There's something in his voice. Liam would call it awe, except it can't be. “That's quite clever, actually.”

“The sofa is shit to sleep on! Harry complains every time. Plus, I'll wake him up when I get ready in the morning.”

“That's fine.”

“Do you even know where I work? I might be a baker. I might have to leave at three in the morning,” Louis says, looking more disgruntled by the minute. He's got his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Are you a baker?” Liam asks. Somehow he can't imagine it but if Louis really does have to leave that early – he'll deal. Most likely he'll just fall back asleep after.

“No,” Nick says, smiling. He pulls at Louis' arm until he melts into his side and then rests his chin on top of his head. If possible, Louis looks even more annoyed by that.

It's a sweet image, even if it does highlight their height difference.

“He's a primary school teacher.”

“Oh.”

For some reason Liam had not expected that. He can't say it doesn't fit Louis, he doesn't know him well enough for that. It's a stark contrast, though. A secret agent and a primary school teacher. It sounds like such an innocent job while Nick does arguably have the most dangerous job one could have.

“Not cool enough for you?” Louis asks sharply.

Liam startles. “Oh no. It's great! I've always thought teachers were incredible, like, they're so patient. When I was in primary, I was awful, really. I never got the hang of spelling but my teacher, she'd always just practise with me over and over again. Even after school and stuff.”

It might be Liam's imagination but Louis' cheek look a bit pink, he thinks. 

“And your spelling is alright now?” Louis asks. 

Liam thinks back to the faces Zayn pulls whenever he has to read a handwritten note or a text from Liam. He shrugs. “Um, you can mostly guess what I mean?”

They laugh. There's nothing to do but join them.

“I'm gonna have a word with the Queen,” Louis says, grinning. “About what kind of people she has at the head of her secret service. One can't spell and this one,” he pokes Nick's nose, “can't keep himself out of trouble. This is England's downfall!”

“To be fair, seeking out trouble is kind of in the job description?” Liam says.

Just like that, they're laughing again. It's a good feeling, to make Nick and Louis laugh. Nick shows off all his teeth as he laughs a loud, unabashed laugh while Louis is just as loud but this time – Liam doesn't know if he does it a lot when he laughs – he's hiding his mouth behind his hand like he can't keep it all in.

–

Louis does end up waking him up the next morning after only a few hours of sleep. Not only is the sofa incredibly uncomfortable, every little noise had kept him awake for way too long. And there had been enough noises. As he'd thought the day before – Nick and Louis had only just been reunited.

He opens his eyes to Louis standing next to the sofa. He's wearing an apologetic smile and holding a cup of tea that he puts down on the coffee table next to Liam's head.

Liam is half back to the land of dreams before Louis has even closed the front door, feeling half-guilty for the tea that will go cold.

–

The next time Liam wakes up, it's properly light out and this time it's Nick standing next to the sofa, smiling down at him.

He's not wearing a shirt. In fact, he's only in boxer shorts.

Liam's good reflexes are what stops him tumbling off the sofa as he sits up too quickly. There's Pig sprawled over his feet, her eyes firmly closed, and Liam wonders for a moment how he hadn't noticed her choosing his legs as a good place to rest.

“Morning,” he means to say but his voice squeaks weirdly from disuse and Nick laughs. He's still wearing the bandage, obviously, but other than that and the boxer shorts that's it. He's got a hairier chest than Liam imagined. He'll stop staring any second now. 

“Morning, love. I'd say I didn't mean to wake you but I actually did mean to,” Nick says. He's still just standing there.

“Um, that's fine.”

“You look all scrunchy in the morning just like Lou.”

Liam doesn't know what to say to that.

Nick seems to be a morning person. Although it's also possible that he's been up for hours already. Liam risks a glance towards the clock hanging above the living room door. It's barely past 8.

“So the thing is I really desperately need a shower. I feel gross,” Nick launches into an explanation. “But I need your help to take off my bandage and then put it back on later. Can't really do it myself.” He points towards where he has already put down everything Liam might need for that. The bandage, plasters, and scissors are lying innocently next to the cup of tea that's surely gone cold now, as well as Liam's gun.

“Sure,” Liam says before really thinking about it.

“I could have asked Louis to do it before he left but he doesn't really like doing that.”

He can understand Louis. He'd probably dislike having to take care of his boyfriend's bullet wound, too. Not that Liam would ever have a boyfriend, mind.

He's still half-asleep, obviously.

Under the blanket Nick had given him the night before, Liam carefully pulls his legs out under Pig. She only shuffles around a bit and then continues her nap like nothing happened.

“You can push her off the sofa, by the way. And Bruce as well although he's not as obsessed with it as she is,” Nick says. 

In response, Liam shrugs. “No, it's fine. I don't mind either of them.” 

Slowly, he pushes the blanket down and off his chest. He's keeping it over his lap to hide his morning situation, though. It has nothing to do with Nick, obviously, it's just his regular morning wood. That still doesn't mean that Nick needs to get an eyeful. 

“You sleep in joggers and a shirt? Doesn't that get hot?”

Liam shrugs. He doesn't sleep completely dressed, not usually, but he's in someone else's flat so he considered it the polite thing to do. 

“I don't really fancy having to chase someone half-naked if you get attacked in the middle of the night,” he says because that's his other reason for sleeping in that outfit. 

“Good thinking, agent,” Nick says. “I've done that before. The chasing someone half-naked. You don't really think about it until later. Had a proper laugh about it.”

Nick sits down next to Liam.

“Stop me if I hurt you,” Liam says even though it's futile. Of course Nick won't stop him. He knows much worse than just the pain of undressing a healing wound. Even Liam does, despite it being only his second mission.

The training can go wrong, too.

“Sure,” Nick replies easily.

Liam only notices that the wound had bled through the bandage when he's already in the process of cutting the bandage off. It sticks to the wound but Liam doesn't pause, just pulls it off carefully without looking at Nick's face. Nick doesn't make a sound.

Liam inspects the wound for a long moment. It's mainly made up off dried and crusted blood.

“Are you sure you should have a shower yet?”

“It's fine, I got shower plasters,” Nick says, holding a packet of them up with his right hand, waving it in Liam's face.

“What did the doctor say?” Liam doesn't take the packet off Nick just yet. He knows those plasters but he also knows they're only used once the wound really starts healing. This one is just so fresh, had only been stitched up the day before.

Nick rolls his eyes at him, not in fondness or amusement but rather in actual annoyance.

“Liam, it's fine.”

“Maybe,” Liam says slowly. He doesn't want to have a fight about this. Nick is his to protect for now, though. That possibly includes protecting him from his own recklessness. “You could have a bath instead? Less pressure on the wound.”

Nick makes a face. “I hate taking baths. My legs are too long, it's awkward.”

Rather than arguing, Liam picks up a clean cotton and softly wipes away any excess blood that's fresh enough to still be wiped away. The wound instantly looks slightly better, at least.

“Alright, then wait a few hours before you take your shower, please. I'll put a clean bandage on it and then this evening you can shower. It'll be better for the wound.”

“You're worse than Aimee,” Nick says. Liam doesn't know who that is.

Nick sits back a bit and Liam lets go of his shoulder.

“Alright but don't put a bandage on quite yet. Let some air at it, you know. If we're being extra careful.” His tone is only slightly mocking.

Relieved, Liam agrees easily.

“Louis will be annoyed that I'm still all grimy.”

“I'll tell him that I told you to wait and why,” Liam says quickly. “Besides, you're not that grimy.”

Nick smiles. “You're sweet.” That's the second time Nick has said that and Liam has only been here for a day. “But that's fine, he'll deal.”

–

Liam honestly expects Louis to mock him or just roll his eyes in annoyance when he gets home but what he does instead is agree with him.

“He's right, you shouldn't shower yet.”

It's Nick who rolls his eyes. He hasn't put on a shirt all day, although Liam did put a bandage on the wound when it had starting bleeding again just the tiniest bit.

You'd think Liam would get used to Nick wandering around half-naked because he's been doing it for the past eight or so hours. He doesn't get used to it, though. It's confusing, mostly because Liam never minds Zayn doing the same at home.

At least Nick put on trousers after breakfast.

“I'm not staying dirty for another night. I smell,” Nick insists.

Louis drops his work bag next to his shoes and walks over to where Liam is sitting on a kitchen chair and Nick is standing next to him.

“You always do,” he says, greeting Nick with a kiss.

Liam looks at his knees.

“Hiya, Liam,” Louis says, ruffling Liam's hair. It's too short to be properly ruffled so it's just Louis rubbing his head a bit.

It's weird. Liam isn't big on touching or being touched by people he barely knows.

“I see you've kept this smelly one here alive for my whole work day, thank you very much.”

Liam shrugs. “Nothing happened. No one attacked or anything. We just watched a lot of The Simpsons and played with the dogs,” he says.

“Yeah. And I fell asleep about fifty times or something. Pain killers are the worst, honestly,” Nick complains. “But Liam's lap makes a nice pillow.”

Oddly enough, Liam hadn't minded being touched by Nick at all. It had been nice, rather, like they had known each other for far longer than they actually do.

Louis smiles at Liam. “That's high praise,” he says. “Nick is fussy about his sleep position.”

Liam shrugs. “Maybe not when he's on pain killers?”

“Yes, please discuss my sleeping habits while I'm standing right next to you, go right ahead.”

“Yeah, they make him groggy as hell. The first time he had to take them I thought he was on drugs. He's gotten better with them now, though,” Louis says, looking right at Liam. Liam is aware that he just wants to annoy Nick now, but it's still confusing in a way Liam doesn't quite understand. “Anyway, but the worst thing is he can't fall asleep without noise around him. Like, without watching something or listening to music. I've completely forgotten the sound of silence by now.”

Louis sighs dramatically. Nick pretends to smack him on the back of the head.

“Oh, since we're on the topic. How did you sleep, Liam? Sofa can't have been very comfy.”

There's genuine interest in Louis' eyes.

“It was alright. I've had worse,” Liam explains. He's slept on the ground outside in the cold during trainings and the last mission before, so a simple two-sweater sofa is perfectly fine with him.

Louis frowns. “Are you still set on not sleeping in the guest room?”

Nick nudges him. “Leave Liam alone. He's just trying to do his job.”

“He doesn't have to be uncomfortable while doing his job,” Louis counters, huffing.

It's nice of Louis, to worry about him like that. He's not sure how to convince him it's not necessary, though.

“Let it go, babe,” Nick says. “And then tell me I'm allowed to shower. Like, I could keep my shoulder out of the water, right? That would be fine.”

He's addressing both of them now.

“You're a baby,” Louis says. “Jesus. Fine. But I'll come with you to make sure you're actually careful with the wound. Do you think that'd be alright, Liam?”

Liam feels his face flush. He wills himself to calm down. It's normal for couples to shower together and while it's certainly not normal that Louis is, well, asking him for permission, in this situation it makes perfect sense.

“Yeah, I think...yeah, you can do that,” Liam replies lamely.

“You're both acting like it's my first injury,” Nick complains but immediately wanders off, presumably to find the shower plasters again.

“You got shot!” Louis shouts after him.

Then, he sighs and says to Liam, “I haven't even had my coming home cup of tea yet. And I still need to walk the dogs later. They were so looking forward to going with Nick again but now he's trapped here.”

“I could make you a cuppa,” Liam offers immediately, jumping on the opportunity to actually do something useful. He can't really offer to walk the dogs instead since he's trapped in much the same way Nick is. “While you shower, I mean.”

Louis sounds grumpy as he says, “That's Nick's job.” He lightens up again quickly, though. It's a thing Louis does, going through a range of emotions over a short period of time. At least it seems like that to Liam. “But thank you, that'd be sweet of you.”

–

Liam spills water on the counter as he tries to pour it into Louis' tea cup the moment he hears something drop in the shower and then the mixed laughter of Nick and Louis. Pig whines a bit, having made it her mission to get in-between his feet and cause him to mess up the relatively easy task of preparing a cup of tea as much as possible. He shushes her gently.

They're cute together, Liam thinks. A perfect couple with just enough tension to keep things interesting, probably.

He's just not sure why it throws him off so much.

–

The next noise that startles Liam is an odd scratching sound coming from somewhere in the flat. It's early morning, not even light out yet, and Liam is on his feet, his gun in hand, in less than a second.

The scratching happens again and then there's someone groaning. It sounds vaguely like someone is trying to break in through a window. One of the dogs barks.

As he slowly makes his way into the hallway, his gun trained even though there's no target yet, he happens upon Nick.

Nick is aiming his own gun at Liam for a moment, out of surprise more than anything. Then, he turns it away and nudges his head towards the guest room.

Liam nods. That's where he thought it was coming from as well.

He gestures for Nick to get back into the bedroom with his free hand – this is Liam's mission and Nick is _the target_.

Nick shakes his head quickly.

Liam doesn't have time for discussions – someone groans loudly now – so instead he just takes the lead towards the guest room.

He doesn't have to kick the door open all action movie like, luckily. He's never been good at doing that without destroying the door completely. It's nonsensical to think about it in that situation but Liam would rather avoid destroying Nick and Louis' guest room door.

Louis yells as Nick and Liam storm the room and he's suddenly faced with two guns trained on him. He stumbles and falls down on the bed that's been moved to the middle of the room from the corner where it used to be. Pig, next to where Bruce is lying sleepily on the floor, his head pillowed on his paws, jumps up a bit and barks again.

Liam can't drop the barrel of his gun down fast enough. 

“What the fuck,” Louis yells as he stands back up. “If you were going to kill me, couldn't you have just executed me in my sleep? Fuck.” He's holding a hand to his chest like he's trying to calm his racing heart.

“I thought you were an intruder!” Liam replies. All the adrenalin is leaving his body at once and he feels light-headed.

“Jesus, Lou, you weren't in bed! I thought they'd gotten you,” Nick interjects more quietly. He's only in his boxer shorts – just like Louis – and the tousled hair paired with the bandage on his shoulder and the spooked look in his eyes makes him look so vulnerable that Liam feels the need to look away. As Pig jumps on his feet, far too awake for the early hour, Nick startles. After a moment, he gently pushes her off to sit on the floor instead.

“Babe,” Louis whispers more to himself than to anyone else. “I'm good. They don't even care about me at all, they--”

“You don't know that,” Nick interrupts briskly. “What are you even doing here? It's barely gone six.”

Nick's hands are trembling just the tiniest bit.

It takes all of Liam's courage – he feels nervous and more out of place than ever before – as he reaches forward without a word to take Nick's gun from him. He clicks the safety back on like he'd done with his before.

Even first years know not to carry any kind of weapon when you're shaking.

No one comments. Nick just gives him a brief look before gesturing towards Louis and the bed that's standing between him and Nick and Liam.

“What are you doing?”

Louis crawls over the bed to stand in front of Nick and take his hand. He is looking at Liam, though. “I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd switch the sofa with the bed before work so Liam can sleep on a real bed.”

“That's nice of you,” Liam says weakly. It really is unexpectedly sweet of Louis.

“You were gonna drag the bed over to the living room all by yourself?” Nick asks, sounding tired.

“Yeah?”

“And ruin the floor in the process.”

“I was trying to be nice,” Louis says but there's not much of the usual heat behind the words.

“Thank you,” Liam says sincerely.

“What are you thanking me for? I didn't even get it into the hallway before you two attacked me.”

“Yeah but it's still a nice thought, isn't it? Maybe we can move it into the living room together when you get back from work,” Liam offers.

Louis' face softens as he nods. “Yeah, maybe.”

–

“I didn't know you wore glasses,” Liam says as he walks into the kitchen. He'd spent most of the morning cuddling with Bruce. It's not like he has a favourite – Pig is wonderful as well – but Bruce is less energetic and more fluffy and it's exactly what Liam needed after the stressful wake up call he had.

Still, it was a nice gesture by Louis.

Nick looks up from where he's cutting a loaf of bread into slices. It's complicated and awkward-looking because he has to use his left elbow to hold the loaf in place. He's wearing black-framed glasses and his hair looks soft and curly since he hadn't bothered to style it.

“Oh yeah. Normally I wear contact lenses,” Nick replies and shrugs unconcerned. “Want a sandwich for lunch, too? I can't be arsed with anything more complicated.”

“Yeah, sure. Want me to do them?” Liam is by Nick's side before he even has an answer.

“No, I'm good,” Nick shrugs him off without even looking up.

“But I've got two working hands.”

“My hands are fine.”

“No, I know – I just meant because of your shoulder you can't really use one of them,” Liam backtracks quickly.

“I think I can handle it, Liam. Why don't you just sit down?”

Nick sounds prickly in a way Liam hasn't heard him before. It's not like he knows him particularly well so maybe he's not a good judge of that – it still strikes him as wrong, somehow.

“I can at least help you,” Liam insists. “I mean, if I'm going to live here, I can help with stuff around the house, right?”

“It's just a few sandwiches. What do you want on yours?”

“I'm not bothered.” Liam pauses. “Let me at least cut up the bread.”

Liam doesn't worry about Nick hurting himself with a knife by accident, he's too well trained for that, even if his movements are restricted. It would still sit better with him if he could just help.

“What, you think I can't use a knife to slice bread?” Nick asks, shooting Liam an impatient look. “I'm already done anyway.”

“I don't think that,” Liam says and gets up to at least get some ham and cheese and whatever Nick wants out of the fridge.

“Well,” Nick says. “Good.”

Liam feels wrong-footed after that. He's not quite sure what he's done wrong or if he's even done anything wrong at all. He was only trying to help and not be as useless as he mostly feels.

They finish and eat their sandwiches in mostly silence. Nick looks sleepy and Liam wishes he could tell him to go take a nap, but he knows that's not his place. Instead, he concentrates on his lunch and keeps quiet.

When they're done, Nick gets out his laptop and headphones and plops down in one of the armchairs in the living room. Pig drops a toy at his feet but Nick just shakes his head at her, signalling that he's not in the mood to play.

It's a clear sign as any that he doesn't want to talk or interact with anyone, Liam included. Liam sits down on the sofa and pulls out his phone to text Zayn.

_'they both hate me, this is brillllliant :(('_

No one has given Liam clear signs of actual hate, yeah, but that doesn't change that Liam feels like he shouldn't be here at all. Despite Louis' sweet actions this morning, Liam still catches him throwing dubious looks every once in a while. 

It's Nick's behaviour that hurts more, though. Liam had thought Nick had actually liked and welcomed him. Now, however, Nick is obviously done with playing a role and done with Liam and it hurts coming from someone Liam had honestly admired for years now. 

Zayn, of course, doesn't answer. 

_'sorry for being emo. This is shitt I wanna come home'_

He stares at his phone for a while longer but Zayn doesn't react. He might be on a mission or he might be taking an afternoon nap, there's no way to tell. 

Pig huffs, picks up her toy that's – Liam only notices now – a squeaky small pink pig toy, which is adorable in itself, considering her name – and drops it at Liam's feet instead. 

At least someone wants to interact with him, then. Liam picks it up to play with her. 

–

Maybe it's a bit rude to be relieved when Louis comes home but Liam really is.

“What happened to you?” Liam asks as Louis walks into the living room.

Nick looks up from his laptop.

There's a streak of blue paint on Louis' left cheek and blue and red spots all over his button-down.

“Children,” Louis sighs. “One of the other teachers is moving away and we were trying to make her a goodbye card.”

“Anyone you like?” Nick asks, closing the laptop lid.

“No, just Mrs. Lee. She's only been at the school for, like, a year anyway.”

Louis bends over to greet Nick with a kiss, then comes over to ruffle Liam's hair again. It's a thing.

“You should probably put your shirt in the washing machine,” Liam blurts unprompted. “If you want to save it, I mean. And shower. You've got paint on your face.”

Louis grins at him. “I know. Let's move the bed over here, first? Don't wanna shower only to get all sweaty again afterwards.”

Nick gets up from where he's sitting. Louis playfully pushes him to sit down again. “Not you, Grimshaw. You're hurt.”

Nick's face clouds over like the sky right before a thunderstorm. Liam wishes he had a way to warn Louis that this is seemingly a sensitive topic.

“I can help you move the bed,” Nick says slowly.

“Your shoulder's injured. Liam and I can manage.”

There's no biting comment or door slamming or even a small huff. Nick simply picks up his laptop and leaves the room. After a moment, they hear the bedroom door close very quietly.

Louis frowns and looks at Liam in question.

Liam shrugs. “He's been like this all day,” he says quietly. Nick probably can't hear him from the bedroom but still. It feels wrong to talk about him behind his back.

“He always gets a bit stroppy when he can't leave the house but it usually takes longer to set in,” Louis says. “Plus, I thought you were enough of a distraction.”

Liam shrugs once more, unsure what to say.

“What did he say to you? Something really rude? That's usually my area of expertise but he can be quite mean, too.”

“No,” Liam says quickly. “Nothing like that.”

“If he does, just be rude back at him,” Louis says.

Liam isn't really listening because Louis starts unbuttoning his shirt.

“I'll just put this in the wash and then we can move the bed, alright?” Louis says and leaves the room.

He comes back after only a few minutes but he hasn't put on a new shirt.

“He's still sulking,” he says and rolls his eyes fondly.

Why do Nick and Louis walk around shirtless so often? Maybe Liam is imagining it. Maybe it's a normal amount and Liam and Zayn are just very prude in their own flat.

But more importantly, why does it throw Liam off so much every time? They're good-looking lads, sure, but Liam isn't interested in guys. He's not bothered by male nakedness, either, normally. At least at the academy with all the other guys in the changing rooms it had never bothered him at all. He'd barely noticed it. Now it's like the world comes into sharp focus when either of them takes off their shirt.

Maybe Liam doesn't deal well with not getting to leave the house, either.

Louis has tattoos on his chest. The biggest one says _It Is What It Is_.

“We should probably move the sofa out of the way first,” Louis says, hands on his hips as he contemplates.

“Probably,” Liam agrees. “Where do you want it?”

“There's no space to have both the sofa and the bed in here so we should put the sofa in the guest room.”

That sounds like a good solution, Liam thinks. The living room will look worse with just a bed standing in it instead of a sofa but he doesn't want to disagree with Louis about it. It's nice that he's so insistent on having Liam sleep on a proper bed.

“I don't think we can properly move the sofa past the bed in the guest room, though,” Liam contemplates. “Maybe we can move it out of the way, into the kitchen or something, then move the bed in here, and then the sofa into the guest room.”

Louis sighs. “That sounds like so much work.”

“We don't have to, it was just a suggestion, I mean--”

“Shut up. Stop looking like a sad puppy. Of course we'll do it. I may hate exercise but I won't have you sleeping on our lumpy sofa one more night.”

Louis curses a lot when they start actually moving the sofa. They only manage to move it a few centimetres before setting it down, pausing, and then carrying it further.

Liam actually doesn't need any pauses in-between, he could easily carry it all the way to the kitchen at once, but Louis huffs and complains a lot so Liam lets him have them.

It's not Louis' fault he's not as physically fit as Liam is. He has to teach little kids the alphabet, not fight actual grown-up criminals, after all.

When they finally put the sofa down next to the kitchen table, Louis immediately drops down on it, face-first.

“I'm never moving again,” he says. “I like the sofa here. We'll leave it here. Sit more comfortably when we have dinner.”

Liam laughs and sits down on the armrest. “And what will you do when you want to watch telly in the living room?”

“Sit on the floor. Nick will probably be all complain-y about it, he's fussy about these things.” Louis turns around so his face isn't smashed into the cushions anymore and looks up at Liam. He's still shirtless. Of course he is. “Would you mind? I bet you'd sit on the floor with me.”

Liam smiles. “Yeah, I wouldn't mind. The floor is fine. We can sit on pillows.”

“We can sit on Nick!” Louis says and laughs heartily.

“He might object to that.”

Louis shrugs and sits up. “We won't ask him, we'll just do it.”

Liam laughs.

“Okay,” Louis says after a moment. “Let me drink some water and then we'll get on with it.”

They have to take the mattress off and transport it separately. It's tricky to get the bed through all the doorways so Liam gets his finger caught in between the bed frame and the doorway more than once.

There's also the dogs who are very offended at being shooed off what they consider their bed and keep running around, getting in-between their feet. Liam barely manages not to trip over Pig. Nick would probably kill him if he accidentally harmed his dog. 

After they manage to get both the bed frame and the mattress settled – they have to push the arm chair to the side because it doesn't fit otherwise – they stand for a second to admire their work.

It looks weird.

“It looks weird,” Louis says. “Like, just a bed in the middle of the living room.”

“Yeah,” Liam agrees. “Should we move it back?”

Louis nudges his arm playfully. “Don't be stupid. We'll let Nick at it later. Or maybe Hazza when he comes over next time. They'll put an overthrow on it and some nice matching pillows and it'll be fine.”

“Alright,” Liam says. “Who’s Hazza?”

“I thought you knew him?” Louis looks surprised. “He's one of your guys. Harry Styles, although I don't know, do you guys have code names? Nick says yes but he always talks shit so I don't believe him. But if he's right, you might only know his code name.”

That must be the Harry Styles Zayn mentioned as well, then.

“We do have code names. Mine's Batman,” Liam says very seriously.

“You're having me on!”

“I'm not.”

Louis squints at him. “You're quite a serious lad, so you wouldn't joke around like that. But Batman? That can't be true. I mean, who would want to be Batman if you could be Spiderman?”

“Um,” Liam says. “Everyone? Batman is, like, a hundred times cooler.”

Louis snorts. “He doesn't even have powers, he's just rich.”

“Who wants to be a spider? No one. And Batman is way more interesting in his story arch!”

“What story arch?” Louis shoots back.

Liam's jaw drops. “I didn't know anyone could be this wrong.”

“Come on, now, you gotta admit Spiderman's way cooler. He's the underdog. He should be your code name!”

“We don't have code names,” Liam admits.

“Hah! I knew it! Absolutely knew it.” He even victoriously pumps a fist in the air. “You're rubbish at pranking people,” Louis says, and sounds delighted about it.

Liam shrugs. “It wasn't a prank, really.”

Louis just grins brightly. “‘Course not. You gave up way too quickly for it to be a prank. But fear not, young one, I'll teach you.”

“Teach me what?”

“The art of pranking, obviously. I'm very good at it. Excellent, even.”

Technically, Liam has no proof of this claim being true – yet, perhaps – but he believes it without hesitation. Louis just seems the type.

“Anyways, good work there, agent,” Louis says, gesturing towards the bed. “Hope you'll sleep better now.”

“I didn't sleep _badly_ before,” Liam interjects.

“But you'll sleep better now! And that's all that matters,” Louis replies, patting Liam's shoulder. “I'm off for a shower. I deserve it.”

Liam answers when Louis is almost out of the living room door. “Is there a situation where someone doesn't deserve a shower?”

The amused grin that Louis sends back over his shoulder is almost a bit blinding in its intensity. Liam waits until he's out of sight and then flops down on the bed, smiling to himself.

–

He doesn't see Nick for the rest of the evening. Louis is gone for a suspiciously long time for just a shower so Liam supposes he's talking to Nick, maybe asking him what his problem is, maybe cuddling him until he feels better. He imagines Nick to be grumpy but never too grumpy for a cuddle with Louis who's probably a very good cuddler, all things considered.

Why Liam is imagining this in the first place, he couldn't tell you if you paid him.

At least Pig and Bruce have forgiven them for moving their bed. They still assume it's theirs, though, jumping up on it and cuddling up next to Liam immediately. He doesn't have it in him to shoo them off.

Louis does return after a long while and they heat up some pizza and eat it sitting cross-legged on Liam's new bed while some random show is on. Liam isn't really paying attention at all. He couldn't care less.

Liam doesn't dare ask after Nick, although he does worry. Maybe it's his fault? Maybe he's pissed off Nick somehow without noticing. It's happened to him before with other people so it's really not that much of a stretch to wonder if it's happened again. Nick could just request another agent to come and take Liam's place, though, Liam supposes, if he's too angry at him.

Of course, it wouldn't look great in Liam's resume.

“Nick's still busy being a baby,” Louis says suddenly. “Which is great. Well, not great-great but he'd never let us eat pizza on your bed. Unless he's drunk, then he'd join us.”

Louis takes a big bite, tomato sauce on the right corner of his lip, and continues with a full mouth, “Oh man, drunk Nick is glorious. We should get him drunk one of these days so you can witness it.”

“What does he do?” Liam asks, curious despite himself. He can't get drunk on the job, obviously, and it would probably be better if Nick stayed sober as well, just in case.

Louis swallows. “Just, he becomes ridiculous. Like, he'll go along with anything. Anything at all. Which is kind of awful because when I'm drunk I come up with the worst ideas in the world. On our third date we got wasted and broke into the uni's fitness center's swimming pool to have a bit of a splash.”

“Did you get caught?”

Louis' eyes are bright as he laughs. “Of course! Some security guy found us. And I don't mean found us as in caught us in the swimming pool – I mean, Nick's cock was full-on in my mouth and the guy nearly had a heart attack. Never seen anyone go so red so quickly.”

Feeling his cheeks go a bit pink at the mental image as well, Liam can't help but laugh. It's too hilarious not to.

Louis gives him a curious look. “Huh,” he says. “Thought you might drop dead if I mentioned anything cock-related.”

Liam finished off his last piece of pizza to stall a bit. After he's carefully chewed and swallowed, he asks, “Why would I?”

“Don't know, really. No offence, mate, but you seem a bit uptight.”

“I'm not!” Sure, Liam is not a great fan of touching strangers and he's not as openly dirty-minded as other people he's met – but he's not uptight. He can easily talk about, well, penis-related stories.

“You seem it, though. You got all blushy on the first day just cause I wasn't wearing a shirt,” Louis says.

Liam tries not to get 'all blushy' again. It's a lost cause. “Well! I didn't know you, did I?”

Louis doesn't even attempt to cover up the fact that he's laughing at Liam.

There's no more pizza to stuff his mouth with so Liam rather unsuccessfully fights off a pout. He's not that bad, surely?

“Don't worry, Li,” Louis says and it's the first time he's called Liam a nickname. It feels nice, like they're friends rather than two people shoved into an awkward living together situation by circumstances. “We'll work on that. You can't always tense up when I touch you, right?”

Louis ruffles Liam's hair like he did upon greeting him after work again. Then, he rests his hand at the nape of his neck.

“Unless you're absolutely against touching,” Louis adds thoughtfully, a small frown on his face.

“No, I'm… It's fine. I mean, your hands are probably all greasy from the pizza so right now it's a bit not so great but in general...” He trails off.

Louis laughs and takes his hand off Liam's neck to touch both his hands to Liam's face instead. The frown is gone, replaced by a gleeful smile.

“Now you're all greasy!”

Liam just laughs.

–

As he goes to sleep that night, Pig is lying at his feet and Bruce has curled up next to him. They take up a lot of his space and Liam had to promise Louis to kick them out once he actually does want to so sleep. He doesn't though, just rests a hand on Bruce's back and closes his eyes.

Hazily Liam thinks about how it feels like he took a step forward with Louis today and two backwards with Nick. 

He remembers Zayn telling him that he's not here to become anyone's best friend – and Zayn is right, of course. Still, he really wants to get along with both of them. It's not just his usual need to get along with everyone to avoid friction, it's not.

Turns out he genuinely likes not only Nick, but also Louis.

–

Liam doesn't talk to or even see Nick again until he's putting away the dishes he's used during breakfast. He's just finished stacking his plate into the dishwasher when Nick enters the kitchen.

He looks a bit sheepish. That might just be Liam's imagination, though.

“Hiya,” he says.

“Hi,” Liam replies in kind. “Sorry, I already had breakfast. I should've waited for you. I can still sit with you if you want?”

Nick is wearing tracksuit bottoms and a too large pink shirt today. He's barefoot and looks cozy. Only his hair is styled up in his signature quiff.

Liam wishes he could look as effortlessly cool as Nick.

“That's fine, I ate with Lou before he left.”

“Oh. Okay, good.”

“Did you sleep better on the bed?” Nick asks. “I saw that you two put the sofa in the guest room. Always did want a sofa in my guest room, it's a vast improvement.”

Nick smiles and Liam instantly feels better about, well, everything.

“I slept great, thanks. You?”

“Alright,” Nick says. “Considering I feel like a bit of a dickhead.”

There's a moment of awkward silence, then Nick goes on, “Come on, then. Sit down. Do you want a cup of tea? Or coffee? Louis says I have to apologise properly which is rich coming from him. He's apologised to me maybe once and he's been a dickhead about a million times.”

“Coffee's fine,” Liam says. He could do with the caffeine.

“Someone with sense around here!” Nick proclaims and steps past him to the coffee machine. “Coffee is superior to tea, but don't tell Lou I said that.”

For a lack of anything better to do, Liam gets two mugs out of the cupboard. He's glad he finally knows where things are – it's awkward to poke around in their cupboards every time he needs anything.

“You don't have to apologise, though,” Liam reassures Nick. “We didn't even fight or anything.”

“No, but still.”

That's all Nick says and Liam can't do anything but accept it.

Nick doesn't take his coffee with milk and Liam doesn't either, so all there's left is to get the sugar out and sit down to wait until the coffee's done.

“Okay, well.” Nick pauses and sits down opposite Liam. He folds his hands on the table. As always, he's wearing a few bracelets and a ring but for the first time Liam wonders if the ring has anything to do with Louis.

“I'm sorry.”

“It's alright.”

“I was a bit of a dick yesterday. To you and Louis, but the thing is Louis can deal with it just fine. Wasn't nice towards you, though. My issues aren't, like, your problem.”

“It's really alright,” Liam assures him again. “You can't always be in a good mood, right?”

Nick drags a hand through his hair and smiles helplessly. The coffee machine beeps twice and before Nick can move Liam grabs the two mugs, walks around the table, and fills them both with coffee.

“No but...” Nick trails off and Liam doesn't look at him. “You probably think I'm useless.”

“I don't think that,” Liam says. He's trying his hardest not to wonder why it's so important to Nick – why he hates feeling useless and why it matters what Liam thinks at all. He turns around and hands Nick one of the mugs. “I really don't. You're just hurt and the doctor said to take care of your shoulder. It'll heal faster if you're careful and then you can do everything by yourself again.”

“You taking my gun from me because I'm trembling has zero to do with my shoulder,” Nick says very matter-of-factly.

Liam is surprised he's brought it up. He kind of thought they were pretending the early morning encounter in the guest room never happened.

“I just don't want you to think I'm actually shit at my job or whatever,” Nick says and laughs uncertainly. “I'm vain like that.”

That's a thought that hasn't crossed Liam's mind before, not even once. “I don't? You're one of the top agents despite the fact that you're really young,” Liam says, genuinely bewildered.

“Yeah, but I still lost my cool just because Louis wasn't in bed with me.”

Liam is at a loss for words. He takes a sip of the coffee he'd already half-forgotten and tries not to make a face when he realises there's no sugar in it.

Grinning, Nick pushes the sugar towards him.

“Cheers.”

“I guess,” Nick says. “I just wanted to explain it? I mean. I know I'm not supposed to, like, let my emotions overcome me. I just can't, though, when it's about Louis.”

“That's normal, I think.”

Not that Liam would know. He's not been in any kind of serious relationship since he's become an agent. Actually, he's never been in any kind of serious relationship ever. His last girlfriend was Danielle and that had been when they had both still been in school.

It's not exactly comparable to Nick and Louis.

“I mean, you've been together for ages, right? And it's a dangerous situation with _The Graves_ being after you. So of course you'll be worried about him. I suppose?”

Liam is actually terrible at being comforting. He's trying, though.

Nick sips at his coffee. “Probably. It's only when it's about him, really. Quite embarrassing, actually. I used to be this cool guy who was above trivial things like love and relationships.” Nick smiles at the memory.

Suddenly, Liam is desperately curious to know everything there is to know about Nick and Louis, how they were before they found each other, and how they got together.

It's a weird thing to be curious about.

“See? He's, like, your weak point. We all have those. If someone attacked my mum, I'd be a mess, too. Not with only a little bit of trembling like you but a proper useless mess.”

Nick laughs at that. “Your mum. God, Liam, you're so sweet.”

Quickly taking another few sips of his coffee doesn't stop Liam from blushing, of course, but maybe it's partly hidden behind the mug.

“So you're not thinking about reporting to Cowell that I should be sacked immediately because I'm clearly in the wrong field?”

Liam laughs at that simply because it's so absurd. “Of course not. I've been looking up to you for ages,” he confesses and okay, the blush is probably clearly noticeable now. He'll blame it on the hot drink if pressed.

Nick makes an odd sort of face, his eyebrows all drawn together like he's frowning but a surprised smile appears on his lips anyway.

Liam can only hope that the knowledge is comforting Nick and will hopefully stop him from assuming Liam thinks he's useless.

“You're lying!”

“I'm most definitely not. You came into my class once to demonstrate defence techniques when I was in second year,” Liam says. “You probably don't remember that.”

“I do! Agent Payne. I still think that's a brilliant name.”

Liam bites down on his tongue to stop himself from grinning too brightly but it's not helping very much so in the end he just grins, staring somewhere to the left of Nick's head so he won't have to look him in the eyes. This is embarrassing enough as it is.

“Yeah. That's me. Actually got the agent in front of the name now,” Liam says. “Didn't drop out like the majority did.”

He's still a bit proud of that. The last year of training had been the hardest and Zayn and him had spent many a night taking care of their various bruises and cuts while contemplating alternative career paths.

They'd made it through, though, in the end.

“Didn't think you would,” Nick says. Liam rather suspects Nick didn't waste many thoughts on him and his chances at actually becoming an agent. His unique last name is probably the only reason Nick remembers him. It's still a nice feeling.

“I thought you were proper cool back then,” Liam confesses.

It's all or nothing now. It doesn't matter, he's already embarrassed himself.

“Really?”

Before Liam can reply, Nick pulls his phone out and starts typing. Liam wants to ask what he's doing but he figures it's probably rude so he doesn't.

“Just texted Louis,” Nick explains, unprompted. “Liam thinks I'm cool! With, like, fifteen heart emojis. That'll drive him up the wall.”

Liam doesn't know why that would drive Louis up the wall – does he not like Liam and doesn't want him to like Nick? Is he _jealous_? No, that's absurd.

“Why?”

Nick puts his phone down, grinning in glee.

“Oh, he wants you to like him better. It's, like, a thing. A competition.”

Never in his life had Liam had anyone fighting over his affections. He's not sure he likes it. There's an odd warm feeling in his stomach as he realises that this must necessarily mean that they can stand him, at the very least. They don't hate him.

He doesn't want them to fight over him, though.

“I like you both,” Liam says decisively. “Don't fight over it.”

“We're not really fighting,” Nick replies easily. He smiles softly at Liam. “I'm glad you like us, though. And that you're not running for the hills at being stuck here.”

“Think I'd lose my job if I went running for the hills.”

Nick laughs. “Nah, I'd cover for you. Say you've been violently sick all over our living room and had to go home or something.”

“Wow,” Liam says. “Lovely. That'll make me look good in front of the supervisors. Thank you.”

Nick just laughs again and empties his coffee mug.

–

Maybe it's Liam imagination – maybe because he wants it so much, he's starting to hallucinate it – but he thinks that with making up with Nick and having his own proper bed, Nick and Louis start to warm more and more to him.

In any case, Liam feels more welcome and less off-kilter in the next days, less like he's forced into an awkward situation due to his job, and, strangely enough, more like a kid at summer camp, spending his days getting to know new exciting people.

There's not much choice for Nick and Liam on what to do but spend their days together. They watch a lot of TV, and try to teach the dogs a few new tricks. Pig is a quick learner but Bruce would rather just have the treat and be cuddled some more than invest any kind of actual effort.

Louis tries to act like he's less than impressed when they show him that they taught Pig to walk backwards through the whole flat without bumping into anything. Granted, it's not the most creative trick to teach a dog but it had been fun, with Nick crouching behind Pig, beckoning her along, and Liam in front of her with a bag of treats, to encourage her.

Louis praises Pig like there's no tomorrow, anyway.

To Liam and Nick he says, “I can do better. I taught them to play football last year, I can show--”

“No footballs in the flat,” Nick interrupts. “I've lost one telly to this and I will not lose another one.”

Louis makes a face. “Liam wants to see the dogs play football, though! Right, Liam?”

They both turn to look at him.

“Sure I do,” Liam says slowly. “But maybe outside. When the mission is over.”

Maybe it's a dumb thing to say – there's no guarantee either of them will want to spend any length of time with him after this is over. They might want to get rid of him as soon as possible.

The way Louis' face lights up, however, and the twinkle in Nick's eyes suggests something else.

So he spends his days with Nick which is fun and he truly enjoys it but the highlight of each day is Louis coming home.

He'll complain and demand someone make him a cup of tea while he walks the dogs. When he gets back, he'll sit down with his tea and tell them all about his work day. He tells them fun, entertaining stories of little kids misbehaving or being funny by accident and Liam loves listening to him. Louis is a great story teller.

That's not the only thing he enjoys about Louis. As he declared at the beginning, Louis does make it his mission to hug and touch and cuddle Liam until he's less tense and more at ease with it. At first it had been a bit awkward, being cuddled by Louis at every given opportunity in front of his boyfriend, but Nick had just laughed each time like he thinks it's brilliant. A few times, he even joined the cuddling and that had been more confusing than Liam knew what do with.

It's good, living with them, easier and more fun than Liam had expected.

–

Louis comes rushing into the living room one Saturday mid-morning. He's grinning so widely that Liam wonders for a brief second if it hurts.

He's also still wet from his shower with Nick and only wearing a towel slung low around his hips.

“Remember what I told you about pranking?” Louis asks quickly, his wet hair is dripping down onto his shoulders.

“That I'm shit at it?” Liam asks back, staring at Louis' face determinedly.

“That I was gonna teach you!” Louis says. “Move over. Watch.”

Without warning Louis drops down right next to Liam on his bed. He's very much almost naked.

It's confusing.

Liam doesn't have time to ponder what's going as Nick storms into the living room next.

“Louis William Tomlinson! You little prick,” he thunders, coming to a halt in front of them.

Louis crawls behind Liam's back, holding onto his arms from behind, and peers over his right shoulder at Nick.

Nick who is also only in a towel. Nick who also still has wet hair. Hair that is very much not dark brown anymore but a bright pink.

“Your hair,” Liam says nonsensically.

“I know!” Nick doesn't even spare a glance at Liam. “Tomlinson, stop hiding! What the hell?! My hair!”

Pig comes running into the room, barking at Nick excitedly.

“Stop yelling, you're upsetting her,” Louis says sweetly, although Pig seems anything but upset. It looks more like she thinks the noise means that there's fun going on.

“Well, you're upsetting _me_!” Nick shoots back.

Louis starts giggling right into Liam's ear.

“You're such a coward, hiding behind Liam,” Nick says. “I'm breaking up with you. For real.”

Louis just giggles harder.

“You've ruined my entire look,” Nick says and stalks out of the room, presumably to examine his new hair colour in the bathroom mirror more closely.

“I think it looks alright,” Liam shouts after him belatedly. “It's not that bad, honestly.”

“You're too nice,” Louis says, hugging Liam from behind now. Liam can feel his shirt collar slowly getting wet, Louis' hair still dripping on it.

“What did you do that for?” Liam asks, bewildered. “And how did you even do that?”

“Easy,” Louis says. He's breathing against a sensitive spot right underneath Liam's ear and it makes Liam squirm. He doesn't move out of Louis' hold, though, just tries to breathe in and out evenly. “Switched his conditioner with hair dye. Waited until he conditioned his hair, obviously. Then, I just got on my knees and sucked him off till he saw stars.”

Louis pauses. All the effort Liam puts into not imaging that scene goes to waste within five seconds.

Why he's half-hard at the thought of Louis blowing Nick in the shower is another question. He's not even interested in guys.

Maybe it's just because he's been shut up with the two of them for ages. He hasn't even made himself come once since he's been here. It's too awkward doing it in their living room. Not to mention the fact that Bruce and Pig sleep cuddled up with him every night.

So it's possibly just a very normal reaction his body is having. Louis is as good as naked and hugging him and breathing against his neck and talking about blow jobs, after all.

Liam's face feels like it's on fire.

“Had to distract him, you know,” Louis continues. “So he wouldn't wash the dye out too early. Worked like a charm, really.”

Nick's voice snaps Liam back into reality at once. He awkwardly moves out of Louis' grip.

“Liam is the only one in this household I still like!” Nick yells. He turns the hair dryer on. Then, clicks it off again, shouts, “Apart from the dogs,” and turns it back on.

Liam clears his throat. His entire face feels hot. “So why did you do it?” he asks, turning sideways to look at Louis.

There's a smug grin on Louis' face. It might just be because of how well his prank on Nick worked but it might also be because – no. No way. There's no way he tried to get Liam hard on purpose.

That would just be incredibly weird.

Louis shrugs. “Got to keep him on his toes. Besides, one more day in here and he'd haven bitten both our heads off. He misses his friends. So he needs a distraction.”

That's a surprisingly nice and considerate reason for secretly dying someone's hair pink. Liam should possibly be less surprised than he is.

The sound of the hair dryer cuts off after a while and Nick walks back into the room, his hair in his signature quiff once again. He's at least wearing grey, washed-out tracksuit bottoms now. Liam tries not to feel too grateful. He can only deal with so much naked skin at once and Louis in almost his entirety plus Nick's chest is more than enough.

“Plus,” Louis says, looking up at Nick, smile smug. “I dyed my hair red for a charity thing at uni once. Only for one day, but this dickhead over there made fun of me for a whole month. So. Revenge!”

“That was years ago. You're a child,” Nick says, rolling his eyes, and sits in the armchair to Liam's left. “How awful does it look?”

“Terrible,” Louis replies without missing a beat.

“I wasn't asking you, you little monster.”

Louis laughs and Liam can't help but think that maybe Nick isn't as mad at him as he's trying to seem.

“It looks fun,” Liam says honestly. “It's really not all that bad. I kind of like it.”

A small smile finds its way onto Nick's lips as he drags a hand through his hair. “You're a good liar. There's a reason you're my favourite.”

“Liam is _my_ favourite,” Louis insists, wrapping himself around Liam again.

Nick grins at Liam, a glint in his eyes. The pink hair really doesn't look that bad. Liam has never liked bright hair colours all that much but it suits Nick. There's an urge to touch it, almost, even though it's of course impossible to feel the colour of hair. Still.

“Stop rubbing yourself all over him, then, you're emotionally scarring the poor lad,” Nick says.

“No,” Louis replies. Liam can't see his face because Louis is still behind him – still hiding from Nick's reach, possibly – but the petulant tone in his voice hints at him pouting. “I'm not. We're training. It's a thing, Nicholas. Liam is fine with this, right?”

Nick is still grinning at him and it's almost as confusing as Louis' half-naked body pressed along his back. Which is a feat to accomplish, really.

“All good,” Liam says because he feels like it's his turn to. “Although, is this training? You're just hiding so Grimmy won't get at you.”

“Traitor!” Louis yells and bites Liam's shoulder through his shirt. Which. Alright.

Nick laughs. “Don't worry, Li. I'll get him back when he least expects it.”

There's nothing to do but smile back at him. Liam doesn't doubt Nick for a second.

–

On a Thursday afternoon, Liam is introduced to Niall.

Liam and Nick are lying next to each other on Liam's bed, exchanging memories about the academy. They never attended it at the same time but they did have many of the same teachers so there's enough to reminisce about.

Liam's stomach hurts from how hard they've been laughing.

“No! I'm telling you, Agent Byrne always hated me.”

“She seemed to like you when you came in to teach us, though,” Liam argues.

“What was she supposed to say?” Nick counters. “ _'Oh, here's this asshole again. No one listen to him. His hair is stupid and he always interrupted me because he's an attention-seeking brat.'_ ”

“Why would she have an opinion on your hair?” Liam asks and doesn't resist the urge to reach out and touch Nick's hair, just for a moment. The pink is not as bright as it had been on the first day but it's still very much there. Liam has grown fond of it and and he suspects Nick has too.

“Don't ask me! But she once said--”

The door flies open, banging against the wall, and all of sudden the excited barks of Pig and Bruce ring out from the hallway.

That's not unusual in itself. Louis quite likes to make an entrance when he returns from work.

What's unusual is Louis shouting, “Children! Niall is here, come say hi.”

Liam looks at Nick with wide eyes. “Who's Niall?” He's heard the name before, Liam is sure. Louis may have mentioned him once or twice.

Still, Louis is very much not supposed to bring anyone to the flat. It's a security risk.

Nick doesn't bother with an answer. He sits up quickly and opens the coffee table drawer. He takes his own gun off the table and drops it into the drawer on top of a few of Louis' magazines and his playstation games, then gets started on unfastening Liam's thigh holder with his own gun in it from Liam's thigh.

Being kind of Nick's bodyguard, Liam always wears his gun on him, unless he's sleeping because he doesn't want to accidentally shoot himself or one of the dogs in his sleep. He hasn't even thought about it until now.

Nick manages to drop the whole thigh holder with the gun into the drawer and shut it just as Louis and his guest enter the living room and Liam sits up.

Niall – because it's probably safe to assume that that's Niall – is Louis' age and height with blue eyes, bright blonde hair and a cheeky smile that easily matches the one Louis wears so often.

“Hiya,” he says. “I'm Niall.”

“I'm Nick.”

Niall laughs brightly and steps forward in the same moment that Nick gets up and they catch each other in a hug. It's one-armed on Nick's side because of his shoulder, still, but Niall goes for the full body-hug.

“I know who you are, Grim. Even with the pink hair. Louis told me all about that.”

“One of my best works, may I say!” Louis interjects from behind Niall and winks at Liam.

Liam feels out of his depth. He's been so used to living with just Nick and Louis that someone new and strange throws him off.

“Haven't seen you in ages! Where've you been?” Niall complains as they let go of each other. “And what have you done to your shoulder? I swear you're more accident-prone than my second years.”

“Here and there,” Nick replies. “And you know. Louis attacked me. As per usual.”

“As per,” Niall repeats and laughs.

He has an Irish accent if Liam's not mistaken. And from the sounds of it he possibly works with Louis at the primary school.

Niall side-steps Nick and points at Liam. “That's your Liam, then?” he asks.

Liam's brain gets stuck on _your Liam_ for a terribly long moment.

“That's him,” Nick says.

Finally, Liam gets up as well. He holds his hand out for Niall to shake. The “Nice to meet you” gets stuck in his throat as Niall rolls his eyes, laughs once more, and pulls him forward into a hug.

“Any friend of these two losers is my friend,” he says into Liam's ear, then lets go of him.

“He's an old friend of Nick's, back from when he still lived in Oldham,” Louis says quickly, almost stumbling over the words in his haste to get them out.

That's their cover story, then. Alright. Liam nods.

Niall gives Louis a look. “Yeah, Tommo, I know. You told me before. I'm not daft.”

“You're not?” Louis says, mock-suprised. “You should've mentioned! My whole life is a lie.”

“Oh, shut up.” Niall laughs again. Then he turns and points at Nick and Liam in turn. “We need your help, boys.”

“With what? Did you bring your kids home and there's a horde of six year olds hiding in the hallway right now?” Nick asks.

“No,” Louis says. “There's an international party thing at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, and Tommo and I were supposed to do the decorations with our kids. Like, little paper lamps with country's flags on them and stuff like that,” Niall explains. “We were supposed to do it with our kids this week but we did a joint project on zoo animals instead.”

Liam frowns. “So you forgot to make the decorations with them?” he concludes.

“Yep. And now we've got the rest of the day plus the night to--”

“You want Liam and me to help you make them?” Nick asks.

“Well, you've got to do it, boyfriend,” Louis shoots back. “It's in the contract and all. That's what you get for being with a primary school teacher.”

Nick rolls his eyes but doesn't disagree.

“And Liam's the sweetest person I've ever met,” Louis continues. “Of course he'll help. Right?”

“Yeah,” Liam says faintly. “Of course I'll help.”

–

Louis tips a cardboard box full of crafting supplies in various colours over and then the whole kitchen table is covered in it.

“So we need to make decorations with different flags on it? Because it's an international party?” Liam asks.

“Yeah. Can't forget a country, either, or one of the parents will come for our heads, probably,” Niall says and sits down next to where Nick looks like he's questioning all his life choices that led him to this point.

“We should get an atlas, then,” Liam says. “They've got lists of all countries with flags. I think you have one in the guest room.”

“No need, I've got my phone here,” Louis replies and tries to sit down, except Liam holds him back by his arm.

“I think we should use an atlas,” Liam says. “Come on. Let's go get it.”

Liam may not be entirely subtle in his need to talk to Louis alone but it doesn't matter. Niall won't guess what's up just because of that. At worst, he'll think Liam is a bit rude.

Sighing a long-suffering sigh, Louis agrees and follows him into the guest room. Liam closes the door on Bruce who is trying to follow them in.

Liam turns to where Louis is sitting on their living room sofa.

“You can't bring anyone here, Louis. You knew that. We told you. It's why Grimmy hasn't been allowed to see his friends for weeks.”

“I know,” Louis says. “But it's just Niall.”

“That doesn't tell me anything,” Liam replies, crossing his arms over his chest. “Because I don't know Niall. And it doesn't matter either way because I'm not worried about Niall attacking suddenly. Nick can defend himself from him alone.”

“Well, then,” Louis says, annoyance clear as day in his tone. “What's your problem?”

“Someone might have followed Niall here!”

Louis frowns. “So? Someone might have followed me home every day.”

“That's not the same thing,” Liam argues. He's trying to keep his calm but he does have to admit that he's pissed off at Louis' thoughtlessness.

“There's two people in front of our house, watching us day and night. I know because I say hello to them when I leave for work. It was Harry the day before yesterday, with some other guy. And there's you, glued to Nick's side twenty-four seven. I think we're good, Liam.”

“We have rules for a reason! There's a reason why neither Grimmy nor I can leave the house! And it's the same reason why you can't just bring random people here! Do you want to jeopardise your boyfriend's safety?”

“You're over-reacting,” Louis says, getting up from the sofa. “I'd never endanger Nick and you know that! You're just being dramatic about this.”

“Dramatic?” Liam repeats. “There's a price on Grimmy's head, quite literally. I'm not being dramatic. Protecting him and worrying about his safety is my job, Louis!”

Louis' face falls. Liam can't figure out why or what he's said that makes him look like that all of a sudden. “Are you gonna kick Niall out?” Louis asks, changing the topic suddenly.

“What? No. He's already here, isn't he? If anyone's followed him, then it's too late.” Liam pauses. “And you still need help with the decorations for the party, too.”

The conversation has taken a turn somewhere but Liam doesn't know where and in which direction.

“We don't need your help,” Louis spits. “That's not your _job_ , is it?”

“What do you--”

It's too late. Louis has already stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him like Liam's older sister Nicola used to do during her teenage years.

Liam takes a few minutes to regain his composure. It's not like he's really lost it but still. Louis always manages to throw him off with nothing more than a few words.

It's just that Louis had been told about the rules, specifically about the ‘not bringing anyone home’ one. Liam knows because he sat right next to Nick when he told him. So it's frustrating to watch Louis break it as if it hadn't even existed in the first place.

Liam sighs and drags a hand through his hair. It's gotten the tiniest bit longer. Just long enough for Louis to ruffle properly as a greeting now.

He hadn't even done that today.

Cursing himself for being so dependent on Louis – and on Nick, too, if he's being honest –, Liam gets up and grabs the atlas from the book shelf. He spares a few seconds to be surprised that they do actually have an atlas, then makes his way back into the kitchen.

“Look what I made!” Nick is holding something up that's made out of red and white paper that's vaguely ball-shaped.

“What's that?” Liam asks carefully as he sits down next to Louis. Louis shoots him an unreadable look.

Liam puts the atlas down next to him.

Hurt, Nick huffs and puts his masterpiece back down. “That's a Polish-themed lantern. You can put a little candle in.”

“But it's round,” Niall objects. His hands are full of glue and he's fighting with a huge yellow piece of cardboard. Liam isn't sure what he's trying to accomplish. “So there's no space to put the lantern on.”

“Plus, it would light up. Paper and candles don't mix well,” Louis adds.

“Fine! It's just a ball-thing, then. I'm trying my best and you're banding up against me!”

“It looks nice,” Liam assures him.

“Don't even try. I know your tricks by now, Liam Payne. You were the one who asked what it is! Don't try to play the ‘sweet Liam can do no harm’ card on me now!”

Niall cracks up laughing. “Is that a thing?”

“It is,” Nick and Louis say at once.

“It isn't,” Liam says but Nick just grins in reply.

So Liam does the only thing he can do – which is start to craft an India-themed garland.

–

They stay up way too late and produce too few decorations.

“These look shit,” Nick judges, all four of them standing in front of their hard work spread out on the table.

“They do,” Niall agrees, grinning. “Brilliant! They're supposed to be made by our kids after all.”

Niall leaves after that, the cardboard box now full of lanterns and garlands and little flags to put into muffins and brownies.

It's late, past eleven already, and they had had Chinese takeaway for dinner, so Liam claims he's tired. He goes to get changed in the guest room where he's stored all his clothes and then crawls into his bed in the living room, turning towards the wall.

He's left alone with his thoughts until Louis returns from his late evening walk with the dogs.

“Sorry,” he whispers as he opens the living room door. Liam pretends he's asleep already and doesn't react.

Bruce makes a disappointed sound at his unsuccessful first attempt to get to Liam on the bed.

“Shush. Liam's alseep,” Louis tells him. Liam can hear him walking into the room and helping Bruce get on the bed. Pig is lying rolled up by Liam's feet already.

“Here,” Louis whispers as he helps Bruce settle down next to Liam. “Cuddle him. But don't suffocate him in his sleep, you great big lump.”

Liam keeps his eyes closed until Louis eventually leaves the room.

–

The next morning Liam wakes up too early because his phone beeps next to his head.

Blearily, Liam grabs for it.

_'Miss you :( do you like them more than me now haha x’_

It's Zayn. Liam puts his phone aside to answer later. He doesn't know what to reply that's not 'I like them so so so much but I think Louis is finally done with me why is he such a thoughtless jerk I like him so much' and that's neither very coherent nor is it something he wants to tell Zayn over text. So. He'll figure out a reply later.

Louis' voice floats in from the kitchen. It's eerily quiet, otherwise, so it's easy to understand him. “Where's my tea, slave boy?”

“I'm working on it,” is Nick's reply. “I could be asleep right now, you know. I'm only awake because you're upset.”

“I'm not upset. Give me my tea.”

Liam doesn't want to listen in – okay, well. Liam does want to listen in. It's just that he knows that it's not a very nice thing to do.

But it's not like he can put his hands over his ears and loudly sing la la la to drown them out, either. So he just lies very still and hides his nose in the fur by Bruce's neck. Bruce snuffles in his sleep.

“Okay. Stop sad-facing, then, if you're not upset,” Nick says.

There's a pause. Louis doesn't reply.

“Oh Lou. It'll be fine.”

“Niall's my best friend,” Louis says. It seems a bit like a nonsensical thing to say. “I just wanted Liam to meet him. I wanted him to like Niall and I thought this would be a good opportunity.”

“I know, babe. Drink your tea.” Nick sounds groggy and still more then half-asleep but so fond that it tugs at Liam's heart. “Of course he likes Niall. Everyone likes Niall.”

“Yeah but now he's angry at me.”

“You're angry at him, too,” Nick reminds him.

Liam buries his face further into Bruce's fur, hoping against hope it'll drown the noise out somehow. He's not supposed to listen to this, not at all. The conversation is about him, for a start.

“Yeah. Wanna know what he said? That being here is only a job for him! What a prick.”

Liam hadn't technically said that. He's never even thought that beyond maybe the first two days he'd spent at their flat.

Does Louis want it to be more than just a job, then? Because that's what it is, now. It's much more. Liam just doesn't have the words to describe what exactly it is now.

Nick laughs softly. “You're such a dramatic little terror, Louis. Come here.”

“Aren't you worried about it at all? That it's only a mission for him?”

Liam presses Bruce closer to him. Bruce whines and starts wiggling so Liam has to reluctantly let go of him.

“Nah,” Nick says. “He looks at you like you're the sun personified.”

What.

He doesn't look at Louis like that! Why would he look at Louis like that? He's not a love-struck teenager. He doesn't like boys, especially not boys with boyfriends. Boyfriends he likes very much! That's not true. It just can't be true.

Louis laughs quietly. “He doesn't! He looks at you like you're the coolest person he's ever met. Which is weird because you're a loser.”

“I'll show you loser,” Nick replies and Louis giggles.

Liam stares at the ceiling.

They talk about Liam like he's in love with – well, with both of them. They probably just mean it in an affectionate, friendly way. Liam can't imagine Nick would be so relaxed about it if he truly thought Liam liked Louis in a romantic way – or vice versa, that Louis would be so relaxed!

It sounds weird. It's probably just because Liam doesn't have enough context for the conversation, right?

It must be.

There's silence now which Liam takes to assume they're probably kissing. Then, Louis says he'll walk the dogs before he's off to work.

Liam rolls onto his side, facing the wall, and pretends he's asleep again – much in the same way he'd done the night before.

–

Liam is selfishly glad when the door falls closed behind Louis, signalling he's off to work.

–

“Hey,” Nick says approximately ten minutes before Louis said he'd be home from the international party at his school. “You still angry at Lou?”

Liam looks up from where he’s playing Fifa on his own. It's more fun with Louis. Nick refuses to play it altogether, but Liam had been bored so he'd been trying to enjoy it on his own.

“I'm not really angry,” he confesses. They'd danced around the topic all day, pretending it wasn't happening. It was easy as yesterday’s events had been through no fault of Nick’s.

“If you say you're disappointed, I might choke and die of laughter,” Nick warns him, a warm smile on his face.

“I'm not my own mum,” Liam counters. “No, it's just. It was a stupid thing to do. I'm just worried about you.”

“Sweet Liam,” Nick says and sits down next to him on the floor.

Nick puts his arms around Liam and squeezes. Carefully, Liam puts the controller down on the floor to hug Nick back.

“The correct answer to my question, however, was yes, you're still very mad at him,” Nick says without letting go of Liam.

Liam can't help but think back to the conversation he'd overheard by accident that morning.

He does think Nick is cool. Nick _is_ cool, in a dorky, fun, never condescending kind of way. That doesn't mean anything, does it? Loads of people think Nick is cool. Even Zayn had thought that, back in second year when he'd come to teach them defence.

“Why?”

“Because,” Nick says, pressing a kiss to Liam's check, finally sitting back and letting go of Liam. “I've got the perfect way to get back at him.”

Liam would really like to give some terribly clever answer but his brain kind of screeches to a halt.

His cheek feels on fire and Liam suppresses the urge to touch it just to see if it feels different, now that Nick has kissed it.

What is wrong with him?

Nick wiggles his eyebrows at him.

“Aren't you gonna ask me about my genius plan?”

“Uh,” Liam says. “What's your plan?”

Nick gets up and leaves the room.

It's a welcome chance to calmly breathe in peace for a moment. Liam stares at his hands.

 _What is wrong with him?_ That's not a normal reaction to being kissed on the cheek. Liam is not that uptight. And it's not like he's bothered by it. The opposite is the case, actually.

Oh god.

Before Liam can freak out any more, Nick returns. Pig is at his heels now. She bounds over to Liam immediately and tries to get at his face to lick all over it. Liam pushes her away gently.

Nick holds up three brightly coloured plastic water pistols for small children and wiggles his eyebrows again.

“You brought one for Louis, too?” Liam asks. He gets up slowly.

After a moment of consideration, he takes the green water pistol from Nick, making sure not to let their hands brush.

“I'm a very fair person. He still won't know what hit him. It's a perfect plan because it serves as double revenge! It's revenge for him being a dick to you yesterday and it's revenge for my wonderful hair.”

Liam knows it's the most stupid thing he could possibly do right now but he reaches out to touch Nick's hair anyway, right where the brown roots are starting to show. It's like a compulsion. He has to do it every time Nick mentions his hair.

“It's not that bad,” he says.

“There's one good thing about it, at least,” Nick says, grinning. “It's made you more touchy-feely. Maybe you're like one of them birds. I forgot what they're called but I saw a documentary on them once, like, they're obsessed with one colour and then just grab everything that's that colour? Maybe you're one of those birds and your colour is pink.”

Liam shakes his head. “I always think Louis is the weirdest person I've ever met and then sometimes you just come out of nowhere with this stuff like you're trying to fight him for the title.”

“I'm taking that as a compliment,” Nick says proudly. “Now come on, we gotta fill them with water before he gets here.”

They fill up Louis' water pistol as well and leave it lying next to the door so he can grab it immediately when he gets home. Then Liam positions himself next to the kitchen door while Nick goes into hiding behind the living room door.

Wherever Louis goes first, he'll be attacked.

After about five minutes of waiting, Nick complains, “I'm bored.”

“Are you kidding?” Liam can't help but laugh. His brain is still stuck on Nick kissing his cheek. Maybe he's losing his mind. “You've probably done this a thousand times on missions.”

“Yeah, but that's for work,” Nick whines.

Liam wants Nick to kiss his cheek again.

Nick has a boyfriend.

Liam has never before been interested in guys like that.

He's never been so grateful to hear Louis' footsteps on the stairs leading up to the front door. He desperately needs the distraction, even if he and Louis are technically fighting.

Nick isn't patient enough to wait for Louis to walk into the the living room. As soon as he's through the door, Nick yells, “Attack!” and is on Louis.

There's nothing to do but follow where Nick leads, then.

Within five seconds, they've completely drenched Louis' face and upper body in water.

Louis drops his bag and shouts curses as Nick and Liam retreat into the kitchen to refill their water pistols at the sink.

“Sneaky bastards!” shouts Louis as he comes running into the kitchen. He's apparently found his own water pistol – the blue one because Nick insisted on pink – because within seconds Liam's back is dripping wet.

“Grimmy! You have to cover me!” Liam says because he hadn't let Nick fill up his water pistol first only to be caught defenceless like this.

“I'm trying, okay!”

Liam turns around, tank filled to the brim with water.

It looks like Nick has emptied his whole water pistol on Louis' face alone because it's dripping wet, his hair plastered to his forehead.

Louis aims his pistol at Liam but Liam knows there can't be much water left in it.

So he has no qualms about attacking ruthlessly.

It escalates from there. Of course it's all quite ridiculous since they have to refill practically every five seconds but that doesn't stop them from having fun.

Bruce and Pig think it's a delightful game, which further complicates matters, since it's hard to look out for Louis' attacks and not trip over either of them at the same time.

“This is incredibly unfair,” Louis complains. Liam has managed to grab him from behind, holding a water pistol to his temple as he struggles.

Only, there's no way Louis can wriggle out of Liam's hold.

Nick is standing in front of Louis, emptying his water pistol right on Louis' crotch, cackling madly.

“You two are trained gunmen! And you're ganging up on me!”

“Boohoo,” Nick says. “It's revenge time. Don't let him go, Li, I gotta refill.”

Nick skips away, cursing loudly when Pig almost has him falling on his face as he enters the kitchen.

“Hey, Liam?” Louis says. He's holding his pistol loosely, aiming at the floor like he's given up the fight.

Liam doesn't trust him.

“Yeah?”

Louis turns his head in Liam's grasp to at least try and look at Liam.

“Fighting with you is shit,” he says quickly like if he doesn't get it out all at once he'll lose his nerve. “It's fun with Nick because he's a passive-aggressive bastard, but it's stupid when it's with you. I don't want you to be mad at me anymore.”

It's not exactly an apology.

It doesn't matter. Liam wants to forgive Louis too badly. Besides, maybe he's already gotten his punishment. He's soaked through, his shirt clinging to his body already.

Just then, Nick comes running back into the hallway where they're standing.

“Watch,” Liam says into Louis' ear very quietly.

“Hah!” Nick says, stopping in front of Louis and aiming his gun at his face dramatically. “Now you'll get what you deserve. My beautiful hair will finally be avenged.”

“Like there was any way to make your hair worse,” Louis replies because even in defeat he's snarky.

In one fluid motion, Liam turns his water pistol around and starts shooting water at Nick's face, right at his forehead, and lets go of Louis.

Nick is too shocked to defend himself, his mouth wide open in shock.

Louis whoops in delight and attacks Nick as well, aiming at his mouth, of course.

“I can't believe you betrayed me like this,” Nick says in the aftermath after he’s tried to get his revenge on Liam and they're all lying on the guest room floor, exhausted and wet. “You're a traitor.”

“I prefer the term ‘double agent’,” Liam replies.

Louis starts laughing. “I never thought you'd do that! That was brilliant! High-five me!”

Liam looks over at him to find Louis already looking back, his smile wide and pleased.

“Louis is gonna love you forever now,” Nick says amused. “He loves a fellow cheater.”

Slowly, Liam holds up his hand for Louis' demanded high-five. Instead of high-fiving him, Louis grabs his hand and holds on.

“That wasn't cheating,” Liam insists.

“Yeah! There's no rules in _war_.”

Nick turns on his side to look at them. His quiff has given up, hanging sadly and wetly into his face. He pushes it out of his line of sight impatiently.

If he's at all confused by Liam and Louis holding hands – which he should be, Liam thinks, Liam just can't quite bring himself to let go – he doesn't show it on his face.

“You're both children,” he huffs instead.

Louis' hand is warm in his and Liam doesn't even mind that it's wet as well. Maybe holding hands is just a natural part of making up after a fight for Louis.

“It was your idea in the first place,” Liam counters.

Liam thinks back to Nick's lips on his cheek and squeezes Louis' hand in his.

“Nick's a sore loser,” Louis stage-whispers.

His brain is a mess, and come tonight, when he's alone and has too much time to think, he’ll probably have a proper freak out about all of it, but – well, right now. Right now he's happy.

–

Nick hands him a giant pastel blue towel with Louis' initials on it and sits down next to him at the kitchen table. Liam puts it around his shoulders so his hair can drip on the towel instead of on his clothes. It doesn't make a difference, really, since his shirt is soaked, but still.

“Tea,” Louis says grandly and puts three cups of tea down on the table. “And I will hear no complaints.”

“Never,” Nick says sweetly and stretches up to kiss Louis on the cheek.

Liam wonders for a moment if he had a small smile playing on his lips the same way Louis does now when Nick had done the same to him.

Probably not. It's much more likely that he had simply looked like a fish out of water.

Liam takes a sip of his too hot tea and burns his tongue in the process. He doesn't flinch.

“I've got a question for you, Liam Payne,” Nick says quite suddenly.

Louis seemingly decides that he doesn't need a chair because he simply sits down on Nick's lap, cradling his tea in both hands.

“Shoot.”

“How'd you get into the academy? No, I mean, how did you get the idea to become an agent in the first place?”

“Right!” Louis says suddenly. “I've been wondering that, too! You're so sweet, I can't imagine you suddenly waking up and going, you know what, I think I wanna be a super spy.”

Liam laughs. “I'm not a super spy. And I'm not that sweet. You called me a traitor five minutes ago, Grim!”

“Eh,” Nick says dismissively, shrugging. “You're still sweet.”

“The sweetest,” Louis adds.

“Well,” Liam says, putting his cup down on the table. “I mentioned Zayn, yeah? My roommate? He's an agent, too.”

They both nod without hesitation. It's possible that a lot of the stories Liam has told so far have involved Zayn.

“Okay, so we've been friends forever. I think I met him in kindergarten or maybe even earlier? I don't know, but I've known him as long as I can remember. And when we were in our second year at uni--”

“What did you study?” Louis interrupts.

“Sound engineering. I wasn't terribly good at it, though, and I didn't really like it, either. Zayn did English, he wanted to become a teacher.”

“A man after my own heart,” Louis says. “Okay, go on.”

Nick puts a hand on Louis' waist

“Well, so, we were at uni and one day we went to the bank to – I can't remember what we wanted there, actually. Anyway, then this robber comes in and starts waving a gun around, telling everyone to get on the floor.”

“And you kicked his ass into next week and were crowned the town's hero!”

“Stop interrupting,” Nick says and pinches Louis' side.

Louis squeaks and frowns at Nick, but quietens down.

“Not really,” Liam says, laughing. “We got on the floor. I was shit scared, to be honest. And he threatened the guy who worked there and that guy was crying really bad. It was awful.”

Liam had crouched on the floor next to Zayn, just praying that it would all be over soon. Before that, he'd never seen a gun in real life. He looks down at his thigh where his gun is secured to him as always.

It almost feels like talking about a completely different person who has next to nothing in common with who he is today.

“He was getting the money too slowly for him, I suppose. Or he was just a dick because suddenly he punches the employee right in the stomach and he falls over. He was crying so hard.”

It's what Liam remembers most vividly. The guy's tears and snot staining his face. He couldn't have been much older than Liam and Zayn himself, probably hadn't even worked at the bank for that long.

“I'm not really sure what happened, then. I only remember Zayn saying my name and then the next thing I know, I'm sitting on the bank robber's back and now he's the one crying because I broke his arm, and Zayn was holding the gun and he clicked the safety back on.”

Louis grins at him. “Like the Hulk. You hulked out.”

Liam pauses to drink his tea and smiles back. “Not really. But that's a nice thought, who doesn't love the Hulk?”

“People who prefer Batman over Spiderman, maybe,” Louis can't help but quip and Liam just shakes his head at him.

“Then it got really weird,” Liam says.

~ ~ ~

“I'm telling you,” Zayn says and shifts on the uncomfortable white plastic seats they've been sitting on for the past twenty minutes. “Something shifty is going on.”

“We're at the police station. Police officers can't be shifty.”

Zayn huffs. “Of course they can. They should take our statement and that's it.”

“They took our statement,” Liam says, lowering his voice. There's no one near right now but he doesn't want to be caught talking like that about the police anyway.

“Yeah and they also made us re-enact what happened on one of the officers. That's weird, isn't it?”

Zayn looks around like he's suspecting someone to jump them at any moment.

“I can't even remember what happened. My re-enactment was probably a disaster,” Liam worries.

“Trust me, Liam, I've been at more police stations than you, and something weird is going on here.”

Liam almost laughs. “You got caught spraying graffiti on our headteacher's garage and they told you to quit being a troublemaker and called your mum to take you home. That happened once and you were fourteen. You're not exactly a hardened criminal.”

“Still,” Zayn says mulishly. 

Zayn – as almost always and at some point Liam is going to learn that lesson, he swears – turns out to be right.

After another fifteen minutes of waiting, two strict-looking women in black suits ask them to come sit with them in one of the interrogation rooms. They promise it's not because they're suspects in any way but because there's no other rooms to use at the moment.

Liam doesn't resist the urge to grab Zayn's hand and nearly crush it with how tightly he's holding onto it.

The two women explain very calmly and gently that they're part of an intelligence operative under the Queen's command.

Liam has no idea what that even means until Zayn nudges him and whispers, “Secret agents and stuff.”

The two women both smile at that and correct him that it's not exactly that – but, principally, yes.

And then they offer both Liam and Zayn a chance to come and train at their very exclusive academy to become agents themselves since they're very impressed by the skills demonstrated by them today, caught on the security camera.

“That was just luck,” Liam tries to explain hastily. No way he's cut out to be a secret agent or spy or anything like that.

“We don't believe it was.”

Zayn slowly turns to Liam, his eyes wider than Liam has ever seen them, his mouth slightly agape. “I told you,” he says. “I told you something shifty was going on!”

~ ~ ~

“And, well, we accepted.”

Nick smiles warmly at him. “They're always so shifty, right? I don't know why they don't use friendlier people for recruitment.”

He looks nice, Liam thinks suddenly, with his pink hair with the brown roots, slightly curling in on itself after the water attack.

“They were friendly! I mean, they weren't mean or anything.”

“Yeah, but they're a bit terrifying. I mean, my dad was an agent and before him his dad, so I've known that I was gonna do this since I was thirteen but they still scared the shit out of me when they came to recruit me.”

“Really? Your whole family? That's cool,” Liam says because he's never heard of anyone coming into the academy like that. Nick basically has agent blood running through his veins.

“I think your story is cooler,” Louis disagrees. “Like a superhero origin story.”

“I thought we were James Bond?” Nick asks, putting his cup down.

Liam takes a sip of his own tea. It's ever so slightly too cool because he'd been too busy talking to pay much attention to it.

“You're James Bond,” Louis explains. “Liam is Batman. Because he's a loser who loves boring old Batman.”

“Okay,” Nick says easily. “Perfect combination, if you ask me. James Bond and Batman and who are you? Hey, what's Batman's butler called? Or the Bond girl, that could be you as well!”

“I take offence at both,” Louis grumbles. “And it's Alfred. But that's not me. I'm Spiderman if Liam doesn't want to be him.”

Nick squeezes him, laughing. “Okay, Spidey.”

–

Making peace with Louis feels nice.

He gets up the next morning when he hears Louis rummage around the kitchen. He'd been awake for a while anyway.

In the kitchen doorway, Liam stops for a moment and just watches.

Louis looks sleepy, his hair a ruffled mess, in nothing but black boxers and a ratty old-shirt that's stretched out at the neck. He shuffles over to the toaster and drops two pieces of toast in.

“Morning,” Liam says quietly in order not to startle him.

Louis looks up and half-smiles.

“Did I wake you?”

“No. Want me to make you a cuppa?”

“You're my favourite,” Louis says which Liam takes as a yes.

While Louis gets a plate and jam for himself ready, Liam puts the kettle on. Liam doesn't feel awake enough to eat yet so he passes on Louis' offer to make him some toast as well.

He'll have breakfast later with Nick.

When they're done, Louis hops up on the counter to sit. He pulls Liam forward by his shirt until he's standing in between his thighs. Then he bends over until he can rest his head on Liam's shoulder.

“That looks incredibly uncomfortable,” Liam says but doesn't dare move.

“Shh,” Louis says. “Louis is asleep. Please come back later.”

Liam doesn't know what to do with his hands. In the end, he just puts them around Louis' shoulders and leaves them there. If Louis is cuddling up to him, then surely hugging him back is allowed, right?

He hopes Louis can't feel his heart beating too fast.

They both startle as the kettle finishes with a beep and only a moment later Louis' toast jumps out of the toaster.

Liam lets go of Louis to pour them both a cup of tea while Louis finishes preparing his breakfast with jam.

As soon as Liam puts the cups down next to Louis, he makes a grab for his, his fingers already sticky with jam.

“No,” Liam says sternly. “It's too hot.”

Louis makes a face and slowly starts eating.

“Did you sleep well?” he asks with his mouth half-full.

Liam smiles involuntarily. He's just so fond of Louis and it feels highlighted like this, in the early morning in the dimly lit kitchen with Louis and his sticky fingers and the too hot tea cooling down next to him.

“Yeah, alright. Pig walked all over me at three in the morning, though. I think I've got a bunch of scratches from her on my hip now.”

Frowning, Louis puts his toast down and wipes his mouth. “You shouldn't let them sleep in your bed, anyway. It's too small and they're getting spoilt.”

Liam shrugs and takes a tiny sip of his tea to see if it's cooled down enough to drink. “It's fine,” he tells Louis and means both the tea and the dogs sleeping in his bed.

Grateful expression on his face, Louis grabs for his cup immediately.

“You said it was their bed before I came here, so it's only fair that they can keep using it,” Liam says.

Louis drinks half his tea in one go and then puts it back down next to his leg.

“You're too nice, Payno.” He boops Liam on the nose like he's a toddler.

“Now I'm sticky,” Liam complains. There's an odd warm feeling in his stomach stretching out into his limbs that he doesn't know what to do with.

“Good. So am I,” Louis replies, smiling sleepily, and wiggles his finger, before continuing to eat his toast.

Liam hides his smile in his tea.

–

Liam is absolutely not too nice. He's as far removed from nice as you can get.

He's actually horrible. A terrible, terrible person.

Objectively, he knows that. Still, he gets up and shoos Bruce and Pig off his bed and out of the room anyway. They look absolutely betrayed and Liam can relate. He feels like he's betraying himself, too.

He walks back over to the bed and falls down on it, face-first.

He's so hard that the relief of just pressing himself down on the mattress makes him roll his eyes.

The combined sounds of Nick and Louis moaning are still filtering in through the wall and Liam is just so, so hard.

He's an awful person, he thinks, as he rolls over to lie on his back instead and shoves his hand down his boxer shorts.

For a moment, he hesitates, just lies there, feeling like an idiot, but then Louis moans Nick's name and Liam _can't_. He just can’t.

He has to bite down hard on his lower lip to not let a sound escape as he finally, finally wraps a hand around himself.

Liam doesn't even know what he's imagining, really – the scenario keeps changing. He's in Nick's place, his hand on Louis' cock, his mouth on his, his head spinning from how good it feels. Then, he's where Louis possibly is right now, squirming underneath Nick, his hands scrambling to touch any bit of skin he can reach, moving on and on to new places like he's trying to map Nick out entirely.

He's leaking pre-come already and he has to fist his free hand into the sheets for something to hold onto.

Liam can't feel his lips anymore, he's biting down on them so hard. He can't feel much of the rest of his body either, his whole world focused on his hand moving faster and faster on his dick.

He's neither of them, then. He's just Liam and he's watching.

Watching Louis get on his knees and – suddenly, Liam remembers very vividly what Louis had told him about the blow job in the shower – his lips stretched wide around Nick's cock, his bright blue eyes looking up at him, his cheeks hollowed out. The Louis in Liam's imagination winks because of course he does. Nick's answering grin is filthy as he starts rocking his hips back and forth, forcing Louis to take whatever he's giving him.

Liam throws a hand over his face and moans very, very quietly into his own biceps.

Just then, Nick's groan filters through the wall and it sounds like “fuck” over and over again.

Liam bites down hard on his own skin and doesn't even feel the pain.

Then, quite suddenly, it's over. Liam's whole body seizes up as he comes hard and spills all over his own stomach.

Breathing hard, Liam stays perfectly still and waits until his body calms down. When he finally feels like he's getting enough air into his lungs, he sits up.

“Oh no,” he whispers as he looks down at the mess he's made.

He tries not to think as he takes off his shirt and uses it to wipe up the come on his belly. He also tries not to listen to the sounds still coming from the bedroom.

Both are futile efforts, doomed from the start.

When Nick and Louis finally seem to finish or at least stop making any sounds, Liam is sitting on his bed, head in his hands, come-stained shirt by his feet.

He feels sick to his stomach which is something that's never happened right after a really satisfying orgasm.

Then again, he's never orgasmed to the soundtrack of two of his closest friends fucking.

–

In the end, he calls Zayn. First, though, he bins the shirt, even goes as far as burying it deep in the bin instead of just dropping it on top. He washes his hands afterwards.

There's no way he can wash it with his other clothes, after all. Nick does the laundry, mostly. Of course he can't tell just by the shirt what exactly had fuelled Liam's imagination but still. Liam prefers getting rid of it altogether to the humiliation of having Nick wash his come-stained shirt.

It's late by the time he gathers up the courage to call his best friend.

“Yeah?”

Liam almost sighs with relief. Zayn's voice in his ear and the dogs back on the bed to cuddle with make him feel lighter instantly, if only a little.

“It's so good to hear your voice,” he blurts out.

Zayn chuckles. “Hi there, babes. How’s it going? Did you finally remember I exist?”

Having known Zayn as long as Liam has, he knows he's just joking.

“Did I wake you?” Liam asks.

“Nah. Just saved me from boring paper work. I'm a super spy, why do I need to bother with paper work? No one at the academy warned me.”

Liam smiles fondly. “We had whole classes focused on how to fill in the forms properly.”

Zayn just grumbles for a bit.

“So? How's the new family? You didn't have a fight, did you? I can easily kick Grimshaw's arse.”

“They're not my new...” The words get stuck in Liam's throat. He sighs. “No, it's all good. No need to kick anyone's arse. We get along well.”

He doesn't know how to say what probably needs to be said. Doesn't know how to put into words this feeling in his chest.

If there are words to describe it, Liam doesn't know them.

“I know,” Zayn says. He sounds like he's smiling. “You talk about them constantly. It's cute.”

Liam swallows drily. It's not cute, at all. He's weird and obsessed and he feels so, so dirty.

He doesn't want to talk about Nick and Louis. It feels too close – like he'll blurt it all out if pressed. So instead he asks about Zayn, about how his life is going, and if he's been sent on any missions recently.

Zayn pauses and says Liam's name like he knows he's trying to deflect. To be fair, Zayn probably does know. He knows Liam better than anyone.

Luckily, though, Zayn isn't the type of person to press for what's wrong. He's never needed to be like that, Liam usually comes right out with whatever is bothering him.

So Zayn lets him change the topic without a fuss and tells Liam all about how he's been painting a lot recently – something about no missions and making use of Liam not being around to drag him away from the canvas to force him to eat and get some sleep.

“You're making me want to come over and force-feed you.”

Zayn laughs. “I know. But you can't, that's why I told you.”

They stay on the line for a while longer until Liam feels groggy, but no less dirty.

No less like a terrible human being and friend. He hadn't even tried to imagine someone female instead while it had been happening. He hadn't tried at all, had just gone with whatever his imagination had given him.

And that had been two guys fucking. Two guys who are his friends – who trust Liam, probably. He feels like he used them.

“Liam?” Zayn prompts after a second. “Did you fall asleep?”

Liam drags a hand over his face and rolls over on his side. “No, not yet.”

Zayn sends him off to bed, after that.

He tries but he doesn't fall asleep for a long while.

–

It's like he's thirteen again, discovering masturbation for the first time, and wondering if his mum can see what he's been up to written all over his face.

Except this time it's Nick he’s hiding from.

Thank god it's not the weekend so Louis has to go to work and Liam can easily pretend to be asleep until he’s actually gone.

Maybe by the windowsill in the guest room is not the best possible hiding spot. Bruce, for one, has already found him, lying by his feet and snoring softly.

Liam loves Bruce. He doesn't confuse him like other members of his family do. He just takes a lot of naps and wants to be cuddled near constantly. Liam can relate easily.

Nick is sensible. More sensible than Louis anyway. Maybe he'll figure out that Liam is not in the living room or the kitchen or any other shared living space and that it probably means that he wants to be left alone.

Not that Liam necessarily wants to be alone. He just doesn't fancy being faced with his own shame flooding back at the sight of Nick's face.

Liam sighs and uses his foot to scratch Bruce's back. He'd bend over and do it properly with his hands but he's actually enjoying the fresh air the open window provides him with too much. So he bends forward more instead, sticking his face out the window.

He hasn't been outside for weeks now. It's no wonder he's going mental.

“Liam Payne! There you are.”

Nick sounds carefree as he strolls into the room. Being unaware of what exactly goes on in Liam's head – what kind of clips had been playing there the night before – is probably a big part of it. He'd sound way different if he knew, Liam wagers.

Liam doesn't turn to look at him. He breathes in deeply instead.

“Gagging for fresh air? Me too,” Nick says and comes to a halt next to him.

To Liam's horror, Nick puts his arms around him in a kind of half-hug.

“When this is over, I'm going to go outside and not come back in for three weeks, at least. Or maybe until it rains next. Whichever comes first.”

Nick laughs lowly and Liam feels hot all over.

“And I'm gonna see all my friends. Maybe I'll host a huge party for myself and invite them all. A barbecue, maybe? I'm not usually a barbecue kind of person but it is outside which fits well with my other plan of not going back inside. What do you think?” Nick goes on, blissfully unaware of Liam's inner turmoil.

“I like barbecues,” Liam says. Not a brilliant reply, sure, but Liam is busy being relieved that he managed any kind of reply at all.

He's attracted to men.

It's clear as day all of a sudden, nearly knocking Liam over in its intensity.

Nick's hands are on his shoulders and they're big and warm and very, very clearly men's hands. And he likes them there. They make him feel hot and he keeps thinking of what would happen if Nick put his big hands on other places of Liam's body and – Liam squeezes his eyes closed.

This can't be happening. He's never felt like this before. (Except he has, has liked Nick since the very first day he met him, years and years ago in a classroom surrounded by other students when Liam had been nothing special and Nick had just been _so cool_.)

“Liam?”

Nick's voice sounds further now like he's stepped away from Liam but his hands are still on him so that can't be. He's gripping more tightly than before. Or maybe that's just Liam projecting his wishes onto what's actually happening.

“Are you okay? The fresh air too much?”

There's an unsure note in Nick's tone that Liam hasn't heard before now. He doesn't like it much but he doesn't have the brain capacity to worry about how to make it go away.

He can't suddenly like men. He's twenty-four years old. Surely he'd have noticed before?

It's not just Nick, either.

Liam feels vaguely ill and a little bit like if he opens his eyes the whole world will come crashing down. He keeps them shut and tries to concentrate on breathing.

Nick is properly hugging him now, holding Liam close to him, but he's not saying a single word.

It's not just Nick and that's perhaps the most scary thing about it. It would have been easy to explain away – everyone has that one man crush, don't they? Even Zayn does. Although Liam is quite sure Zayn doesn't listen in on his man crush having sex like a creep and gets off on it.

Thinking of Zayn just doubles the heavy weight in his stomach. How is he gonna explain this to him?

Because the thing is – the truly terrible confusing weird strange odd thing about it is – it's Louis as well.

And Liam thinks that if he is so easily attracted to men, he should have noticed it before. He should have noticed it years and years ago, as an insecure teenager. But he hasn't. It's just now.

Without noticing, he’d possibly fallen in love with Nick years ago, bypassing a hero crush and stumbling right into a proper one, without even his heart speeding up to warn him.

But with Louis, it had been slower. More like a flower growing steadily each day until suddenly it's blooming in the most vibrant colours, except Liam can't even remember planting a seed in the first place.

That can't be true, can it?

“Love? You're spooking me. Say something,” Nick requests quietly.

Liam can't be straight one day and then wake up with a crush on two - _two_ like that's not completely absurd – men the next day, can he? That's not a thing. He's never heard of anything like it.

“Liam, please. Are you okay? Do you feel ill?”

There's no getting away from it, either. He can't just walk out of the front door and leave all these confusing feelings behind.

One of Nick's hands is wrapped loosely around Liam's wrist now, only his index finger pressing into his skin.

Dimly, Liam realises that Nick is feeling his pulse.

“Your heart is racing. Do you want me to call anyone? Should I call your friend Zayn? Or maybe Lou? He'll come home straight away, I promise.”

Why would Nick think calling Louis is a good idea? He should try and keep Liam as far away from Louis as possible.

Except, of course, Nick doesn't know what's going on inside of him.

“Either say something or at least open your eyes or I'm calling a doctor right now,” Nick says, more secure now, almost commanding.

“Sorry,” Liam presses out.

He opens his eyes.

The world doesn't come crashing down.

There's just Nick, his face very close and very worried, as he stares at Liam.

“I'm fine,” Liam says.

The urge to just surge forward and kiss Nick arrives without any warning but it nestles in Liam's mind like it's not planning on leaving ever again.

Liam thinks he's managed to avoid staring at Nick's lips but the way Nick raises his eyebrows just the tiniest bit tells a different story.

“You don't look it. Want to lie down on the sofa for a bit? Or do you want me to call anyone?”

“No.” Liam clears his throat and gently moves out of Nick's grip. “I mean I'll--. Sitting down is good, I think. But you don't need to call anyone.”

Nick doesn't ask what happened. He takes a step back, instead, and watches as Liam walks over to the sofa and drops down on it.

“Are you--?”

Liam looks up at him and Nick doesn't finish his question.

“Sorry,” Liam says. He hopes that Nick doesn't ask what he's apologising for because what is he supposed to answer, then? Sorry for having a giant crush on both you _and_ your long-time significant other?

Now that he thinks about it, lying down does sound great, after all.

Nick frowns. “I'll get you a glass of water,” he says decisively and then he leaves the room, leaving the door ajar.

Bruce trots over to Liam and rests his head on Liam's knee, licking his hands in a move that Liam knows means he's asking for cuddles. Only too grateful for the distraction, Liam leans forward and presses his face into Bruce's fur at the same time as stroking a palm over his back.

He can hear Nick talking to someone on the phone.

When he returns, Nick stops in front of Liam, looking unsure for a reason Liam couldn't even pinpoint if he wasn't preoccupied with the mess of his own head.

“Here,” he says, handing him a glass of water.

Liam lets go of Bruce to take it but doesn't drink.

“Who did you call?”

Nick doesn't even have the good grace to look caught red-handed, although Liam had said that there was no need to call anyone.

“Louis. You're worrying me a bit, Li.”

There's nothing to say to that that's not uncomfortably revealing so Liam remains silent and drinks his water.

It's a bit like Nick doesn't know what to do with himself. He keeps hovering by Liam's side as if staring a hole into his head will magically reveal what's inside of it, or, perhaps, like just his mere presence will cheer Liam up. (Which it does. Which is kind of the problem.) Yet, Nick never sits down next to him. He's just hovering and hovering, his hand twitching, maybe out of habit of being a very touchy person before he remembers that he's not allowed or doesn't want to.

It's exhausting to try and consider all the reasons Nick might not want to touch him.

Especially because Liam knows one very good reason for it.

Despite knowing that it will surely make the mess in his head worse, Liam can't help but wish for Louis to be here. He's always a breath of fresh air. There's something about him that makes the whole world seem a little less serious and a bit more like one grand adventure.

So in the end Liam can't really be angry when it's potentially Nick's call that causes Louis to come home nearly an hour earlier than usual.

“Where are my boys?” Louis shouts good-naturedly as they hear the front door open. Then there's a bark and Louis laughing and shushing Pig. “Sorry, love, I meant my boys and my lady, of course. I'd never forget you.”

As he enters the guest room, Louis doesn't even detour to greet Nick – he makes a beeline for the sofa and throws himself on Liam with so much force that Liam topples over to the side. Thankfully he had put his empty glass away already.

“No,” Nick says instantly, worry written all over his face. “Louis, get off. Let Liam have his space.”

“Liam doesn't want space. Liam wants cuddles,” Louis argues and presses his nose into Liam's cheek with so much force that it almost hurts.

Liam closes his eyes.

“Tomlinson,” Nick warns.

“It's alright,” Liam says quietly although his heart is constricting painfully.

“See.” There's no need to be able to see Louis' face. Liam knows that he's grinning triumphantly like he's just won a grand prize. “Now what are you standing around for? Give us a cuddle. Do you mean to tell me Liam is poorly and you've just been standing around uselessly?”

“I'm not poorly.”

“Maybe I'm trying to avoid sending him into another panic attack,” Nick replies impatiently.

Louis' hold on Liam tightens.

When Liam opens his eyes again, Nick and Louis are locked in a staring match. He knows that it's about him but he doesn't know why. Surely Nick can't know what Liam himself only realised a few hours ago?

Then again. Liam had always been painfully obvious when crushing on someone. He'd never been able to hide it from anyone, be it his mum, friends, or the object of his affection herself.

So maybe Nick has noticed before Liam himself realised anything at all and that's why he wants Louis to stop touching Liam.

All of it is too confusing.

Louis, in any case, refuses to let go of Liam. When they decide to relocate into the kitchen around dinner time, he even goes as far as demanding a piggy back ride there.

Despite Liam still feeling like he's reeling from the shock, what he thought about Louis proves to be true. He makes Liam feel lighter.

“How was school today?” Liam asks eventually as they watch Nick prepare a lasagne for them. His shoulder is almost fully healed now and his movements more fluid. Liam hadn't even thought about offering to help but he thinks that maybe just this once it's fine.

“He speaks!” Louis exclaims, taking Liam's hand in his, grinning brightly.

There's not enough air in Liam's lungs, all of a sudden.

“Don't mock him,” Nick says sternly.

“I'm not mocking him.”

“Well, you're not being very nice, either,” Nick replies as he opens the oven door.

“I'm being very nice! What are you doing, then? You could at least give him a hug, he's clearly confused and--”

“Shush!” Nick interrupts.

At the same time, they both turn to look at Liam.

Louis is still holding Liam's hand in his.

They're not even wondering what's wrong with him but instead keep going on like they know exactly what this is all about.

Which just can't be true.

They haven't kicked him out yet, for one.

Liam says, “Don't fight because of me. I'm sorry.”

“Don't apologise,” Nick says immediately. “You're too sweet, Liam. We're not really fighting.”

“Yeah, I haven't even thrown plates at his head yet,” Louis adds and squeezes Liam's hand in his. Liam isn't entirely convinced that Louis is kidding about the plate throwing.

“I'm not sweet.” He's really not. Both of them have said it to him more than once and it's always been something that made Liam feel warm inside and appreciated but now it's – he's dirty, is what he is. Dirty and creepy and Nick and Louis don't even know.

He's most definitely not sweet.

Nick sighs. Then he holds a hand up as if to signal them to wait. He finally sticks the lasagne into the oven, closes the oven door, and sets the timer. When he's done, he walks over to where Liam is sitting next to Louis, crouches down and hugs Liam tightly.

Liam should feel guilty, of course he should, for hugging Nick back while still holding Louis' hand. He shouldn't let himself be comforted by any of it, he just shouldn't. Yet, he feels calmer and more at ease than he's done in hours.

–

When evening rolls around, Nick and Louis insist on staying with Liam as long as they can. They make themselves comfortable on Liam's bed – it's incredibly crowded with three grown men and two dogs, so there's really no other choice but to cuddle. Even after Louis has dropped off several times, it takes Liam a while to convince Nick and him that they really can't all sleep on his bed.

Liam would probably end up having another panic attack.

Finally, Nick wakes up Louis properly and they stumble off towards the bedroom together. Liam closes his eyes and tries not to wish he could just get up and follow them, after all. Really, this isn't a normal thing to wish for.

If this was just about suddenly being into men as well as women – well, Liam could probably deal. It's scary and he doesn't want to even think about what any of his friends or family might say, but he could deal.

If this was just about falling for someone who's already in a relationship – well, Liam could easily deal. He's been down that route before. It's painful, always just watching from afar and wishing, wishing, wishing, but Liam could do it.

Even if this was only about having a crush on two people at once – which _is_ odd but manageable. Liam is probably not the only person in the world to ever have a crush on two people at once, right?

Yet, all of it combined makes Liam feel like he's lost the ground underneath his feet and he keeps falling without any end in sight.

After that day, somehow Liam gets used to that feeling. Well, not used to it, exactly. It stays staggering how there's never enough air in his lungs whenever Nick touches him or how his heart beats in an odd pattern that resembles Louis' laugh too closely.

He gets better at hiding it, perhaps. At least he hopes so. He can't be as obvious as he usually is with his crushes.

So starting the next day he pushes all of his panic and his feelings deep down and goes back to acting like before.

There's a before and an after now.

–

Later, he'll wonder if he had been inattentive, distracted, or not on guard because of his feelings. If it was his fault.

It happens on a fairly regular Saturday morning – Nick wants them all to clean the flat, Louis is arguing against it on the grounds that Liam and Nick have all the time in the world to do that during the week while he's working, and Liam is very much in love.

Nothing out of the ordinary, really.

“But we need your help, you're the only one small enough to fit into all the corners,” Nick teases and takes a pre-emptive step back and away from Louis.

That's when Liam sees it.

He knows what it is immediately, of course. How could he not? It's painfully easy to recognise the small red dot of light that appears right in the middle of Nick's forehead.

Liam isn't sure whether he manages to shout an order to Louis before he tackles Nick to the floor. In any case, within seconds Louis is down on the floor, too.

The bullet hits the wall right behind where Nick had been standing seconds before.

Liam is on autopilot. He pulls his gun out, clicks the security off, and hisses “stay”.

Perhaps they've been in this kind of situation before, perhaps they've trained for it, or maybe Louis is just naturally a quick thinker – he rolls over and under Liam's bed until he's hidden almost completely.

Nick stays where he is.

Liam crouches and makes his way over to the window, slowly and steadily.

The sound of the glass splintering hadn't even registered with Liam when it had happened.

As he ever so slowly leans up to risk a glance out of the window, he can't help but internally curse the fact that the flat is on the ground floor.

It makes them that much more vulnerable.

Gun fire starts up, loud and close to where they are. Liam presses himself flat down to the floor again, hidden by the windowsill, but there's no bullets entering the living room this time.

“What's happening?” Louis asks so quietly Liam almost misses it.

“The other two agents,” Nick says, sounding breathless. He's got his gun in his hand as well.

He's right. The other two agents, parked in front of the house, watching day and night, must have come to their aid.

There's a pause in the gun fire. Liam counts to five before he leans up again to finally see what's going on, his gun aimed and ready.

Except, there's someone else on the other side of the window with exactly the same idea, crouching and slowly leaning up.

He's wearing a headband and his face is almost covered in tattoos that look like meaningless scribbles to Liam.

For a breathless moment Liam and him – one of the last remaining members of _The Graves_ – look at each other, guns aimed.

Liam's only thought is 'he can't come in here'.

The guy doesn't even blink.

In one movement, Liam punches the guy square in the face. As he stumbles back, cursing, Liam jumps out of the windowsill and into Nick and Louis' front yard.

Of course the guy's confusion doesn't last long. Still, Liam doesn't give him any time to sort himself out and get ready to aim again.

A scuffle erupts. Sometimes – when he's not in the middle of a potentially deadly fight – Liam wonders how it comes that confrontations with some of the most dangerous people in the world almost always end in hands-on fights that would not be out of place in a schoolyard.

The guy doesn't even mean to shoot, Liam thinks, he's too distracted by Liam's feet kicking his ribcage repeatedly.

Still, the gun goes off.

The bullet enters Liam's calf without a sound. Liam barely notices it, too high on adrenalin.

Blood splatters everywhere as Liam finally manages to knock the guy out.

Immediately, Liam aims his gun again and takes a look around. There can't be only one guy, after all.

Someone comes running at him from the direction of the street and Liam almost shoots.

“It's me!”

There's no brain capacity left to wonder what Zayn is doing here.

He has hand cuffs, luckily, and cuffs the unconscious guy immediately.

“Harry's got the other one,” Zayn says without looking at Liam, concentrating on what he's doing instead. “We think there's only two but we already called for help and I'll check the area in a minute.”

After he's successfully cuffed the guy who's bleeding heavily from a head wound, Zayn looks up.

“Your leg,” Zayn says calmly. There's no panic in his voice. Liam loves Zayn. “Sit down, Liam.”

Almost as if his legs had just been waiting for the command, they give out under him.

Somewhere above Liam's head, from the direction of the window, comes Nick's voice yelling Liam's name.

He passes out.

–

There are a lot of faces staring at him when Liam regains consciousness. It's almost too much.

“Liam? Stay with us,” Zayn says when Liam is just about to drift off into unconsciousness again.

Liam blinks a few times, shaking the feeling off, and tries to concentrate.

He's lying in one of the examination rooms in the headquarter, he recognises that immediately. Zayn is standing next to his head, his brows furrowed with worry as he stares down at him. On Liam's left side are Nick and Louis. Louis is clutching Nick's hand in one of his and Liam's in his other hand. He's squeezing so hard that Liam can't even really feel it.

That might also be caused by pain killers or anaesthesia, though.

Next to Nick and Louis is another agent that Liam doesn't know. He's young, Liam's age perhaps, with dark, curly hair. He's smiling kindly at Liam.

The doctor – the same doctor who had operated on Nick's shoulder all those weeks ago – is sitting on a stool by his feet, gloved hands working swiftly on Liam's right calf. Standing next to him are Agent Cole and Agent Cowell.

Liam feels like a fool but he wants to ask what happened, despite the fact that he knows. He knows that Nick got attacked by _The Graves_ and he knows he got shot in the resulting fight. The fact that Nick is there, next to him, looking worried but whole and fine also tells him that nothing too severe happened after he passed out.

Liam clears his throat. “Were all remaining members caught?”

Out of nowhere, Louis starts crying.

“You fucking idiot,” he says.

It's almost funny how uncomfortable his supervisors look at the sudden outburst of emotion.

Almost angrily, Louis uses his sleeve to wipe his eyes. “You could've gotten really hurt!”

“He did get really hurt,” Zayn points out.

“I'm quitting your job for you,” Louis goes on without paying any attention to Zayn.

Liam blinks groggily. “I'm fine,” he says.

Nick smiles at him, eyes tired, before he wraps his arms around Louis.

The agent next to them, the one Liam doesn't know, leans forward, and holds a hand out to Liam. “I'm Harry,” he says, smile still in place.

“We were on shift,” Zayn says when Liam doesn't react immediately. “That's Harry Styles.”

“Oh.” Of course it would be Harry Styles, Nick and Louis' friend they've mentioned over and over again, and his best friend Zayn on duty the moment they do get attacked after more than a month of nothing. Of course.

“'m Liam,” Liam says, carefully pronouncing his words. “I've heard a lot about you.”

Harry laughs. “Right back at you, Liam.”

Liam can't concentrate on Harry. His eyes keep flitting back over to where Nick is holding Louis who is still squeezing Liam's hand tightly in his.

“Okay,” Agent Cowell says suddenly. Liam nearly flinches. He'd almost forgotten about his and Agent Cole's presence.

Everyone but the doctor cleaning the wound on Liam's leg looks up. Liam is very, very glad that he can't feel his leg at all.

“There's too many people in here. Everyone but Agent Payne, leave.”

No one moves.

Finally, Louis quips up, “I don't work for you. You can't tell me what to do.”

“Louis!” Harry is scandalised.

Liam meets Nick's eyes, twin amused grins on their faces. Liam feels lighter and this time it has nothing to do with any drugs.

Agent Cole crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Agent Malik, agent Styles, go wait outside. Agent Grimshaw can stay while we review the mission. And Louis can do whatever he wants.”

Louis smiles at her. “Cheryl, you're my favourite.”

Liam wasn't aware that Louis was close to any of their supervisors.

Zayn frowns and touches a hand to Liam's cheek. “I'll be back later,” he promises before leaving the room with Harry.

“He's not actually supposed to listen to mission reviews,” Agent Cowell says, looking right at Louis.

Louis shrugs. “I don't give a fuck about your missions, I'm here because of Liam. Plus, Nick or Liam would've told me all about it anyway if I was really interested in that stuff.”

That's perhaps not the best thing to say but Agent Cowell accepts it with a frown.

“How are you feeling, Agent Payne?”

Liam swallows drily. He's not sure how he feels. “Can't feel much,” he says without thinking it through first.

“That's the drugs,” the doctor says. He's bandaging Liam's calf pretty heavily. Liam is scared to ask how long he won't be walking properly.

“Is it over, then?” Liam asks because no one had answered his questions before. “Have you caught the last members?”

Agent Cole nods. “Well, actually you did. You and agents Styles and Malik. They're in investigative custody now.”

A heavy weight falls off Liam's shoulders. Nick is safe.

–

They don't really end up reviewing the mission, after all. Liam feels too far away, like he's floating, to properly hold a conversation about it.

Agent Horlon tells him he's done a good job, though.

It's curious how it doesn't make Liam feel anything in particular. This hasn't been about doing a good job since about the time Liam and Nick walked in on Louis trying to move the bed into the living room for Liam all by himself. It had been about keeping Nick and Louis safe. He's succeeded in that.

Liam is exhausted and he just wants to sleep for a year.

“Can't let you go home quite yet,” the doctor says when their supervisors have left and Zayn and Harry were allowed to come back into the room. He sounds apologetic. “You'll have to spend the night in the hospital wing so we can monitor the wound. It's quite severe.”

That's fine with Liam. Only briefly does he think about the fact that he'll be going home to his own flat tomorrow – not to Nick and Louis' anymore. It makes his stomach drop in the weirdest way. Liam tries to ignore it.

It's Louis' face that falls. “But he'll be fine, right? He's like a super spy, he's probably had worse before, hasn't he?”

Liam hasn't had worse before.

The doctor gives Louis a sympathetic look. “Unless something completely unexpected happens, yeah, he'll be fine.”

Louis is still holding Liam's hand.

When a nurse comes to transfer Liam to the hospital wing via wheelchair, Harry is the only one to take his leave instead of following Liam and the nurse like a bunch of baby ducklings following their mum.

Maybe the meds are making Liam a bit high.

“Nice to have met you, Liam,” he says, shaking his hand again, bowing a little since Liam is already sitting in the wheelchair. “Hope we'll see each other under nicer circumstances next time.”

Liam cracks a smile. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Same.”

“I didn't know you had a hospital wing here,” Louis says as they walk down the hall. He's let go of Liam's hand now, it's too impractical to hold it while Liam is in a wheelchair.

When Liam finally gets to lie down again, on a proper bed this time instead of an examination table, he's so exhausted he falls asleep right away. Faintly, he hears Nick asking about visiting hours and how long they can stay but doesn't even register the nurse answering.

–

The next time Liam opens his eyes, it's dark outside of his window and he feels less like he's floating and more like a real person. A real person whose leg hurts like hell.

He makes a face.

Louis is sitting on a chair by his bedside but he immediately gets up from it to lean over Liam. Even with worry lines etched on his face, he looks beautiful. Liam shouldn't be noticing that.

“Are you alright? Do you need anything? Should I call the nurse?”

Liam shakes his head. “No, stop worrying. I'm good.”

It had only been the initial shock upon waking up – his leg does hurt, of course, but it's manageable.

Louis makes a face like maybe he's trying not to cry again. Liam really doesn't want him to cry.

Where have Nick and Zayn gone, anyway?

“Can I hug you or will that hurt?” Louis asks.

It's the first time he's asked if it's fine to touch Liam since the very beginning.

Liam smiles. “You're not gonna hug my leg, are you?”

Louis doesn't say anything, just pulls Liam into a tight hug. “You got me so worried, Li,” he says right by his ear just before kissing Liam's cheek. “I got into a fight with one of your guys when they came to take you away and wouldn't let me come.”

Liam buries his face in Louis' shoulder. “Well, you won that fight, then.” Louis had been there when Liam woke up in the examination room, after all.

“Of course I did. I wasn't gonna let you go alone.”

After a too short while, Louis lets go of Liam and sits back down on the chair again.

“Is Nick back under house arrest?” Liam blurts because he can't think of any more subtle way to ask where Nick is.

“Oh no. He's free as a bird now and ecstatic about it,” Louis says, rolling his eyes fondly. “They just need him to fill in some paper work, they said. He'll be back in a bit.”

Liam nods. “That's good,” he says lamely.

“Your Zayn had to leave earlier, though,” Louis says.

Suddenly, Liam feels embarrassed about not having asked about him.

“Had to go back to work, but he wasn't happy about it at all. He says to tell you hi.”

Liam can't help but smile. He can exactly imagine the mulish expression on Zayn's face as he was forced to leave.

“I like Zayn. He's a good one,” Louis says unprompted and smiles back.

Liam thinks back to meeting Niall and Louis having just wanted Niall and Liam to like each other. He understands the feeling better now. Hopefully Zayn will say he likes Louis as well. And Nick, too.

They fall silent for a bit. Liam fiddles with the duvet. He keeps thinking about whenever he will get to go home. Tomorrow, probably. He'll go home with Zayn to their flat, of course.

The little Nick-and-Louis-and-Liam bubble will pop for good. If it hasn't already.

“Can I ask a question?”

Louis rolls his eyes. “No, Liam, you cannot. Shut up, of course you can.”

Liam sticks his hands under the duvet to stop fiddling. If this is the end of whatever the past month had been, then he can ask the question. It doesn't matter anymore. Louis won't have to worry about how weird he is for wanting to know this.

“How did you and Nick get together? Back at uni?”

Surprisingly, Louis laughs at that.

“I thought you'd never ask!”

Why would Louis expect him to ask?

“Okay, so I met him through Harry, actually. I didn't know that they knew each other from, well, here, obviously. We met at a party and the first thing he did was toss his drink all over me.”

Liam laughs. Somehow that's typical for them. It's so endearing, in a way, that Liam doesn't know what to do with myself.

“It wasn't funny at the time! I yelled at him a lot. He just laughed at me!”

It's comforting to know Nick hasn't changed at all, it seems.

“So we went to the bathroom to try and dry my shirt a bit and--”

The cheeky grin on Louis' face is what tips Liam off.

“Oh no. You didn't have sex in the bathroom, did you?”

Louis laughs.

“That's like really bad porn!”

“I know,” Louis says like he's proud of it.

“What happened, then?”

“Well, at first it was--”

Louis stops talking when the door opens and Nick enters the room. His eyes look tired but he lights up when he sees Liam is awake.

Or at least Liam likes to believe that's the reason.

“Hiya, Batman. How are you?”

“Fine.”

Nick grabs the second chair that's just leaning against the wall to sit down on Liam's other side. “Good to see you're better. We were worried.”

“Nick was ready to kill that guy that shot you in the leg,” Louis interjects.

Nick doesn't meet Liam's eyes. His cheeks look a bit pink.

Suddenly, Liam is glad that there's no need to have him hooked up to a heart monitor. That could have gotten embarrassing really quickly.

He's not sure what to say to that. “Well, do you want to continue the story, Lou? I'm curious now.”

“Oh yeah! Liam asked how we got together,” Louis says to Nick, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Nick shoots Liam a look. “Let me tell him.”

~ ~ ~

The doorbell rings at quarter past eleven on a Sunday night.

Nick frowns. Not that he doesn't normally have friends coming over without warning at all times of the day and night – just not usually on Sundays. It's everyone's rest day.

He's not quite down with his academy training, so he hasn't been given his own gun yet.

Still, he's careful as he opens the door, only doing it bit by bit, and keeping himself in a defensive stance.

It's Louis.

Nick opens the door completely. “Hi?”

“You,” Louis says, pointing at Nick's face. He's in jeans, a too big jacket, and wearing a blue beanie. Seems like even he has finally noticed it's winter and cold outside now. The urge to pull him in to warm him up is familiar to Nick by now. That doesn't mean it gets easier to suppress it.

“Me,” Nick says, leaning against the door frame.

“I have a question for you.”

“Are you high? Or drunk?” There's something sluggish about Louis' movements and his speech. Nick can't properly tell if his pupils are dilated, though.

“Little bit of both. Doesn't matter. I have a question.”

“You said,” Nick says. He wonders if this is a booty call of some kind. He knows he'll give in again if it is.

He always gives in.

“Wanna come in?” Nick steps back and opens the door wider.

Louis walks right through the hallway into the kitchen. He doesn't take off his shoes even though Nick has told him to every single time he's been here before.

By the time Nick has taken a second to breathe in and out and follows him into the kitchen, Louis is sitting on the kitchen table, swinging his legs impatiently. Nick is glad he lives on his own, though it's mostly so no noisy flatmate will realise that he's not actually studying at uni.

“So? Your question?” Nick is careful not to step too close to Louis.

“It's like this,” Louis says, stopping the movements of his legs and staring at Nick intently. His fringe is windswept.

Nick is going to die soon of all the feelings this idiot boy causes him.

“We've been having sex at least twice a week for ages now,” Louis starts as if Nick doesn't know.

As if Nick hadn't marked the day they first met in his phone calendar like a sentimental idiot.

“And I've been trying to date you. Like, properly. And you know that. Don't act like you don't.”

Nick crosses his arms in front of his chest. Of course he knows. The candles on the carefully laid out dinner table, the grabbing Nick's hands while walking, the invitations to go see a movie – it had all been there.

Nick had taken great care to dodge all of it. He just can't get any closer to Louis. It's the price of becoming a secret agent. He can't tell Louis what he's really doing but he can't be with him, properly be with him, and live a lie, either. Nick is still trying his best to pretend it's not tearing him apart inside.

“Don't you have anything to say?” Louis prompts.

“Well, you haven't asked me a question yet, have you?”

Louis groans. “You're such a dick. I don't know why I even like you.”

Nick shrugs.

“Okay, so. I've been trying to date you. And sometimes you – I don't know, you'd go with it? You acted like you like me too, like me _that way_. But then, every single time, you went and messed it up again. On purpose. Completely on purpose.”

There's nothing to say to that. Nick wasn't aware Louis was seeing through him so easily.

“Don't look so shocked. Like you're not super obvious? Last week you danced with that guy at the club, which was shit of you, by the way. But you kept staring at me. No matter where I went, you were still staring at me. You're not subtle, Grimshaw.”

Nick bites down on his lower lip. What can he say? “What's your question?”

Louis sighs. “I know you're heads over heels for me. I know it. I also know that I'm completely gone for you. So my question is: What's your fucking problem?”

It's not like Nick's heart really stops beating. That would be ridiculous. It just feels like it, for a moment.

“You're not in love with me,” Nick says.

“Please,” Louis replies. “Try not to be a dick for once in your life, Grimshaw.”

He looks oddly grumpy for someone who has just confessed their love to Nick.

Nick has tried so, so hard to hold back. It's not working at all. There's nothing else left, really.

“Well, you're the one who's in love with a dick,” Nick says, stepping closer. “So what does that make you, then?”

“An idiot, probably.” Louis reaches out to pull Nick closer by the hem of his shirt. Nick goes willingly. “Answer my question.”

“I can't,” Nick confesses. “I don't have a good answer. I was trying to run away.”

“Well, you can't.” Louis' eyes are so bright. “Is it true, though? Are you head over heels for me?”

“You were only supposed to ask one question, Tomlinson.”

“Answer or I'll kick you in the balls,” Louis says, smiling sweetly.

“Lovely. Charming. Absolutely the way to my heart.”

Nick leans forward until he's just a breath away from Louis' lips.

“I don't need to find the way to your heart anymore, do I?” Louis presses again.

Maybe Nick is making a huge mistake by giving in.

Maybe he isn't.

He smiles and says, “No, you don't.”

~ ~ ~

Liam is so in love. There's no going back on it, there's no denying it. It's just there, deep in his veins.

“That's sweet,” he says. It's more than that, he thinks.

“That's Nick in a nutshell,” Louis says. “If you want something from him, threaten to kick him in the balls.”

Liam laughs. “I'll remember that.”

Nick instinctively covers his crotch. “Who did I piss off to end up with the both of you?”

_With the both of you. ___

____

–

What Liam later dubs _The Reveal_ happens the next day.

Zayn is there as soon as visiting hours start, Nick and Louis arrive ten minutes later. They bring clothes for Liam to change into. It's nothing short of awkward and painful to change into the pair of shorts due to his leg. He's off the infusion with the strong pain meds now, so everything is just that bit more painful.

At least he gets to go home.

Liam is trying out his new pair of crutches when the nurse comes in to hand him his discharge papers.

“Finally,” Zayn says and gets up from where he'd been sitting on Liam's bed. “We're gonna take a cab home, right? Probably not much fun to navigate the bus with these.”

Louis frowns. He's right next to Liam, holding out his hands in case Liam topples over. Liam would probably just topple Louis over as well but he's not exactly complaining at the chance to be close to Louis.

“You're coming home with us,” he says.

“What?” Zayn looks at Louis like he can't quite believe what he's hearing. “He lives with me.”

“He can stay with us for a bit. We can take care of him, I mean, he can't even walk properly,” Louis argues, now turning towards Zayn.

“I thought I was doing fine,” Liam mouths at Nick. He earns a grin.

“He's not a baby, he doesn't need anyone taking care of him.” Zayn scoffs. “Besides, I'm there, aren't I? I can help him with stuff.”

“We're two people. What is he gonna do while you're at work? Or if they send you on a mission?”

“I'm not completely helpless,” Liam interjects just to make a point. He's trying very hard not to wonder why Louis wants him to come back home with him and Nick so badly. It's not good for him to wonder about that.

“Alright,” Nick says, stepping in-between them. “Let's not fight in a hospital room, okay? Liam's stuff is still at ours anyway. Why don’t he and Zayn comes with us – we drove here– to get it and then we can decide what to do at ours?”

That sounds reasonable. At some point someone will ask Liam what he wants. He doesn't know what he'll answer, then. It's pretty clear to him that he wants to stay at Nick and Louis' as long as he's allowed to – but it's probably not the best idea if the wants to get over his crushes.

Nick and Louis are a few steps ahead of Zayn and Liam in the corridor, arguing over who has to drive. That's when Zayn leans over to Liam who's concentrating hard on keeping his balance and being at least a little faster than a snail, and says, “They're, like, creepily obsessed with you.”

Liam flushes. “They're not.”

“Mate, believe me. It's weird.”

“Shut up,” Liam says. “It's not. We're...friends.”

Zayn laughs. “Yeah, okay. Let me know when they've asked you for a threesome, though.”

There's nothing Liam can say to that since they catch up with Nick and Louis at the lift right then. He also doesn't know what he'd even reply.

'If only'?

–

It's odd to see Zayn in the flat. It's been Nick and Louis' and Liam's bubble away from the outside world for so long now.

Zayn only raises his eyebrows very slightly at the sight of Liam's bed in the middle of the living room before sitting down on it next to Liam.

“Do you need anything?” Nick asks suddenly.

Liam shakes his head no.

Louis sits down on the coffee table, facing Liam and Zayn. After a moment, Nick drops down in the arm chair.

“Let's discuss this, then,” Louis prompts.

“I don't know what there is to discuss,” Zayn replies. “Why would he stay with you? The job's done.”

“We're just worried about him,” Nick says.

It's weird to be talked about like he's not there.

“Well, you can come visit him at ours, then.”

“Liam took care of Nick when he was shot, so it's fair we return the favour,” Louis argues.

“Okay, I don't know what went on here, but if you like want to keep Liam as your servant boy or whatever, that's seriously messed up and--”

“No,” Liam interrupts. “That's absolutely not what went on.”

He feels incredibly out of his depth.

“Did you tell Zayn that's what you were doing here?” Louis asks, shock and anger written all over his face.

“Of course not!”

Maybe he should have been more honest with Zayn, should have told him about his feelings. He hadn't exactly known how to start that particular conversation, though.

“I can't believe you'd say--”

“I didn't say that,” Liam shoots back before Louis can get worked up about it. “I swear. Why would I?”

“He didn't,” Zayn agrees. “It just seems weird why you're so hell-bent on keeping Nick's former bodyguard here after he got shot doing his job.”

“What's your problem?” Louis demands to know from Zayn.

“This is ridiculous,” Nick cuts in. “Liam is a grown man. Where do you want to go, Li?”

All of them turn to look at him.

Liam shrugs awkwardly. “I'd love to stay with you,” he says honestly. “But I don't really think it's the best idea.”

“Why not?” Louis demands to know.

“It's just not – I don't want to be in your way.”

“You're not in the way,” Nick says softly.

Liam's heart is going to beat right out of his chest. He wants to stay, of course he does. Why wouldn't he?

He needs to try and protect himself.

“I know,” Liam says because he hasn't felt out of place or awkward for weeks now – apart from the bit where he realised how not out of place he felt and how very unfortunate that was. Falling in love with two people who are already in a relationship with each other is a lot to deal with. “Still. I should go home with Zayn.”

Louis scoffs.

Liam suppresses the completely irrational urge to apologise. There's nothing to apologise for. (Except for, perhaps, not having tried harder not to fall.)

“Where's your stuff?” Zayn asks. “I'll go and pack it for you.”

“In the guest room. It's to the left, the last room at the end of the hallway.”

To avoid Louis' gaze, Liam looks over at Nick. He looks resigned as he drags a hand through his hair, his eyes firmly fixed on Liam.

Liam's heart is heavy. He knows this isn't the end of whatever odd friendship the three of them have built – hopes it isn't, at least – but still. It's the end of something.

“I'll drive you,” Nick offers as Zayn gets up. “Could really use the fresh air.”

“You're gonna start avoiding us, aren't you?” Louis says suddenly. He looks desperately, desperately sad. Liam can't wonder why, can't let himself.

“I won't,” Liam tries but he's not even sure if it's the truth. Maybe he will. Maybe that's easier.

“You will.”

Zayn stops in the doorway. “Mate, why are you being so dramatic about Liam moving back in with me?”

Louis doesn't pay him any mind. “Yeah, you will. I thought you liked being here but you're just desperate to get away.”

“Louis,” Nick says quietly.

“I'm not desperate to get away!”

“You are! What did we do, then, Liam? What did we do to make you not like us anymore?”

“You've got it so completely wrong, Louis,” Liam tries. How is it even possible to get it that wrong?

This is not an issue of Liam not liking Nick and Louis _at all_. It's the exact opposite.

“Then enlighten me, Liam! Tell me why you're running away if I've got it wrong!”

Liam buries his face in his hands. It's too much, it's way too much.

It doesn't matter anymore what he says, does it? It's over anyway.

“Because it's not right!” he says into his hands.

“What's not right?” Nick asks. He sounds so utterly calm while Liam is losing his mind.

“What I'm feeling!” Liam drops his hands down and faces Nick and Louis. “I need to stop feeling this way but I keep falling for both of you! And you have each other and it's so wrong to want-- So that's why I need to leave, alright? Because I need it to stop. That's why.”

Silence ensues. A silence so thick that it threatens to suffocate Liam.

Nick and Louis are staring at him, their eyes wide. Liam's gaze keeps flitting between the two of them.

“I'm sorry,” he adds finally, voice breaking.

“Liam--,” Nick starts.

He's interrupted by Zayn. “You what now?”

Liam's gaze shoots up. He forgot about Zayn.

Zayn who doesn't even know that Liam is – well, apparently bisexual. Who doesn't know anything about what had been going on.

Very, very quietly, Zayn says, “You're not even into guys”, then turns around and leaves the room, pale as a sheet.

Liam knows that Zayn's name won't stop him in his tracks but he tries anyway.

“Liam,” Louis pleads, grabbing for Liam's arm.

Liam pulls back as if burned. “I'm sorry,” he says again.

He grabs his crutches and heaves himself off the bed, intent on following Zayn. No door has banged closed yet, so he hasn't left entirely.

Louis grabs his arm again, this time holding on. His eyes look wet. “Wait just a minute, we want to--”

“I'm sorry,” Liam repeats like a broken record. “I know I'm awful. I have to talk to Zayn.”

“You're not awful,” Nick says. He's stood up and is at Liam's other side now. He's also smiling which is potentially the oddest thing to have happened today. He's smiling brilliantly.

It's awkward stumbling past them, clumsy on his crutches, and out of the living room.

“Can't we talk to you first, please, it's important!”

Liam shakes his head. His face is burning. _They know, they know, they know_ , is all that's going through his head. He's so embarrassed.

Neither Nick nor Louis tries to stop him again.

–

He finds Zayn in the bathroom, sitting on the floor with his back against the bathtub.

When Liam noisily makes his way in and accidentally slams the door closed, Zayn doesn't look up. Instead, he keeps stroking Bruce's back. He has made himself comfortable on Zayn's lap.

“That's a cute dog,” Zayn says finally.

“I know. His name's Bruce.”

Zayn smiles down at Bruce who's staring back up, brown eyes trustful. “Good name. Reminds me of Bruce Banner.”

Liam takes a moment to drop down next to Zayn, careful not to touch him. “Maybe he's named after him, actually. I haven't asked. I wouldn't be surprised, though – Louis is into superheroes.”

At the mention of Louis' name, Zayn looks up and at Liam.

Liam wants to cry and scream at how utterly hurt he looks. At how utterly hurt he lets himself look in front of Liam.

“I owe you an explanation, I guess,” Liam tries carefully.

“I'd say so,” Zayn snorts.

Liam swallows. “I don't know where to start.”

“Well,” Zayn says. “I don't know what to wonder about first. You suddenly being – what, gay? And into two guys at once? Who are actually married to each other?”

“They're not married,” Liam says quietly.

“Well, that makes all the difference in the world.”

Taking a deep breath, Liam buries the urge to cry. “I'm not gay, I don't think? I've liked girls before,” he explains because it's the part that's perhaps the easiest to explain. The part that's clearest to Liam himself. “And I think I could still like girls.”

“Bisexual, then,” Zayn says, easy as anything, but he sounds cold. “Glad you bothered to tell me after everyone else already knows.”

“No one knows!” That's not quite true. “Well, before now. No one knew before now. I didn't realise until a few days ago.”

Zayn stops stroking Bruce. He stares at Liam. “Did you realise because of them?”

Biting down on his lip, Liam nods.

He can almost watch the frostiness melt off Zayn's face.

“Oh, Li,” he says, suddenly. “Are you alright?”

Quite suddenly, Liam fears that if he opens his mouth he might just start weeping and not stop. So he just shakes his head, keeping quiet.

Despite being clearly still pissed off with Liam, Zayn pulls him into a tight hug without hesitation. There's a reason they're best friends, after all.

“That must have been hard,” Zayn whispers into Liam's ear.

Liam clings on with all his might. “Yeah,” he replies lamely.

“You should've told me,” Zayn says.

Zayn can probably feel his neck slowly getting wetter where Liam is pressing his face into it. It doesn't matter. Of course he should have told Zayn. He should have told him when he called him after wanking to the sound of Nick and Louis having sex.

It was the first time Liam realised something was going on and he should've told Zayn right then.

“I know it's weird,” Liam admits when he feels less like he's choking. His voice sounds tired and thin even to himself. “Like, being in love with both of them.”

Zayn nods. He doesn't let go of Liam. “It's super weird,” he agrees. “Are you sure?”

He wishes he wasn't. “Yeah. I'm pretty sure.”

Slowly, Zayn pulls back, but doesn't go very far, still holding on to Liam's shoulders. “You've always had too big a heart.” He leans backwards, rips off a few pieces of toilet paper and hands them to Liam.

Liam uses them to wipe his eyes. Crying on the floor of Nick and Louis' bathroom is now something he can add to the list of embarrassing things he's done.

“No, I'm just weird.”

Zayn smiles and ruffles Liam's hair. “You are. We'll need to talk more about this.”

Liam nods hastily. It'll be good for him, maybe, to get it all out before he starts trying to get over them.

“But not here. I'll take you home first, alright?”

Again, Liam nods. “I don't want to leave the bathroom,” he admits after a moment. The thought of facing Nick and Louis again is terrifying. His face heats up at just the thought of it.

Zayn leans his forehead against Liam's. “Breathe. It'll be fine.”

Carefully, Liam breathes in and out.

“You stay right here. This dog here will protect you, I assume. He seems like a good one. I'll go and get your stuff as quickly as I can, alright? And then we make a run for it.”

Liam laughs wetly. “I can't run,” he says, indicating his crutches.

“Well, we'll stumble out, then. Or I'll carry you and all your stuff out. We'll figure it out. Stay here until I'm back, okay?”

“Alright. My stuff is in the wardrobe and the suitcase is on top of it.”

Zayn nods in understanding. He heaves Bruce off his lap and shoves him over to Liam, careful to avoid his calf. Bruce licks Liam's hand in greeting.

“Hulk out when one of your owners tries to come in, alright?” Zayn tells the dog before standing up.

With one last look at Liam, he opens the door and leaves, carefully closing it behind himself again.

Liam sighs. “I'm gonna miss you,” he tells Bruce.

In response, Liam assumes, Bruce licks his hand again.

The door slams against the wall with a bang as Louis throws it open, Nick right behind him.

“Have you talked it out? Besties again and everything?” Louis asks in a rush. His eyes are bright.

Liam wants to run. For almost a whole second, he forgets that he's stronger than Louis and fears he's gonna beat him up for being a weirdo now. The bullet wound in his calf and the dog on his lap force him to stay right where he is, sitting on the bathroom floor.

As if in slow motion, Liam nods.

Nick laughs and gives Louis a shove towards Liam, then enters the bathroom behind him. Pig comes bundling in after them, barking excitedly.

Louis carefully steps over Liam's leg, then drops down to crouch by his side. Nick does the same on his other side.

“Are you gonna punch me?” Liam blurts.

Nicks laughs again. “Shut up.”

Louis' hands on his cheeks are unexpected, all things considered.

Louis slowly turning Liam's head to face him and then pressing a kiss to Liam's lips is even more so. Dimly, Liam is aware that he probably looks like a deer in the headlights, eyes wide.

After that first short peck, Louis pulls back. “Kiss me back, Liam,” he demands and then dives right in again.

So Liam does.

But only when he feels Nick's hand on the back of his neck, stroking slowly, does he close his eyes and bury his hands in Louis' hair, giving it all he's got. The only thing Liam hears is the blood rushing in his ears, the only thing he feels are Louis' lips on his and Nick's hand on his neck.

It's like he's floating.

“Alright,” Nick says after what feels like hours but was probably only a few minutes at most.

Louis pulls back. “You're a good kisser,” he says happily, his lips spit-slick.

“What,” Liam says intelligently. Louis laughs.

Liam is forced to drop his hands out of Louis' hair as Louis uses his hands still on Liam's cheek to turn his head away, this time to face Nick.

“Hiya,” Nick says, eyes sparkling.

Like a pair of magnets, their faces get closer until Liam can feel Nick's breath right on his lips, their foreheads not quite touching.

“Please don't have a heart attack,” Nick asks, carefully placing one hand on Liam's chest where his heart might be.

“This would be such a rubbish time to die. Are you gonna kiss me?”

Nick smiles as Louis suddenly hugs Liam from behind. “Can you guys get to it? I wanna see,” he demands.

“Full disclosure,” Nick says. Liam is going to die of anticipation and it really is rubbish timing. He wants to see where this goes. “I thought you were awfully cute on the first day we met.”

“When I got assigned to the mission?” Liam asks, even though he can guess that's not what Nick means.

“When I went to visit you in class.”

“Come on,” Louis urges, biting at Liam's shoulder through his shirt.

Really, Liam can't see a reason to wait any longer. He kisses Nick.

It's different from kissing Louis. Liam couldn't pick a favourite if you held a gun to his head.

There's happiness shooting through Liam's veins. If it wasn't for Nick and Louis holding him down, he'd probably float away towards the ceiling.

–

The noise of Zayn dropping the suitcase in shock is what brings Liam back to earth.

It takes a lot of will power to separate from Nick. The bathroom is crowded with Louis and Nick by Liam's side, Bruce on his lap, and Pig next to her friend, yapping happily.

Liam looks past them all at Zayn who is staring back at the three of them, tangled up on the floor like they are.

Louis bites at Liam's ear. The giggle Liam lets out is completely involuntary.

“Mate,” Zayn says slowly. “I told you they were creepily obsessed with you, didn't I?”

–

In the end, Zayn leaves with Liam's suitcase but without Liam. He just stays long enough to finally discuss the issue of where Liam is going to live – Louis still protests but Liam thinks it's probably better not to move in with Nick and Louis right away, so they decide that he will move back home to Zayn.

Liam can already tell he'll probably spend most of his time at Nick and Louis' anyway, so it doesn't really make much of a difference.

After they've decided, Zayn gives Liam a quick hug and makes a beeline for the door. Liam can't even blame him, with the way Louis keeps pulling at Liam's shirt and Nick's hand keeps wandering to his thigh.

After the door falls shut behind Zayn, Louis is on Liam's lap in the blink of an eye.

“Careful,” Nick warns, but he tugs Louis into a sideways hug. “Liam's leg is hurt.”

“Like I could forget,” Louis replies, rolling his eyes. He takes Liam's hand in his and asks, “Can I ask him now?”

“No,” Nick says.

Liam doesn't know what they're talking about.

“I want to ask,” Nick adds.

“Ask me what?”

Nick presses a kiss to Liam's cheek. It's very likely that Liam is blushing again, just the tiniest bit, but he doesn't feel embarrassed about it anymore. He's just happy.

Louis pouts. “I want to! Li, tell him, I can ask you!”

“You're cute,” Liam tells Louis instead. “But I still don't know what you're talking about.”

“ _You're_ cute,” Louis shoots back childishly, grinning from ear to ear.

“We had a deal, Lewis,” Nick says, putting an am around Liam's shoulders. “You get to kiss him first and I get to ask.”

Liam's jaw drops. “You didn't have a deal about kissing me!”

Louis giggles as Nick shrugs. “We absolutely did.”

That means that they've talked about it before, imagined it, wanted it, and waited for it. Liam's head is spinning.

“You're sweet,” Nick tells him, pecking him on the lips.

That might never stop being the most incredible feeling.

“Stop saying that,” Liam groans, trying to sound stern, but mostly ending up somewhere between flattered and embarrassed. “And ask your question.”

Nick clears his throat importantly.

Just as he's about to start speaking, finally, Louis hits him on the shoulder. “Stop making it a big deal!”

“It is a big deal,” Nick disagrees.

Liam is so in love it hurts.

“I know,” Louis says, rolling his eyes. “But I wanna get back to making out, so. Chop chop.”

Putting his entire hand over Louis' face is presumably meant to shut him up. Louis simply licks over Nick's palm until Nick drops it in disgust and then grins at Liam triumphantly.

“Not to rush but I might die of anticipation within the next two minutes,” Liam says.

Nick laughs. “Alright, alright. Liam, do you want to be our boyfriend?”

This is probably Liam's fifth adrenalin rush of the day. It can't be healthy. “I-- Really?”

“Of course really,” Louis says, nodding.

Liam doesn't mean to be a downer but. “Do you think that works? Three people in a relationship? I don't-- I don't want to mess anything up.”

Nick and Louis share a look for a moment before they focus back on Liam.

“We won't know if it works until we try. And we really want to.” Louis sounds less sure of himself now than before and Liam feels guilty for being the cause of that.

“It does work,” Nick assures him. His hand is playing with the short hair at the back of Liam's neck and it's stealing at least a quarter of Liam's brain capacity. “In general, I mean. I've done it before. It wasn't anything as serious, I was pretty young back then, but yeah. It can work out.”

Liam really wants to believe it can.

Slowly, he nods. It's hard to keep the giant smile off his face so he stops trying after a second. “I really, really want to try, too,” he admits.

Both hug him at once.

“That's a yes, right?” Louis asks into Liam's ear.

It feels great to be held by both of them at once, warm and comfortable and safe.

“Yeah,” Liam agrees. “That's a yes.”

–

Falling into each other is almost too easy.

It's actually not all that different from before – if you discount the near constant touching and kissing and cuddling.

If you discount how utterly, completely happy Liam is all the time.

Nick goes back to work and so does Louis, of course. Liam is on sick leave, his leg a constant reminder. So Liam spends his days with Zayn if he has time or one of his other friends or – secretly his favourite – curled up with Pig and Bruce, waiting for his boyfriends to come home.

They don't go on dates, not properly, mostly due to Liam's inability to walk. The only time they try to go see a movie they can't agree on one so instead they end up going for ice cream.

It's one of Liam's favourite memories so far.

Most of the time, however, they spend at the flat just like before or walking – hobbling, in Liam's case – the dogs, playing with them at the park. More often than not Liam will sleep at Nick and Louis', all three of them tangled up on the bed, as close as can be. Liam feels too hot after about five minutes every single time but he never moves from his spot. Louis kicks in his sleep and Nick talks and Liam doesn't mind one single bit.

So really, it's all good.

There's only one problem.

Liam is half-asleep on the bed already, his head pillowed on Nick's thigh as he cards through Liam's hair absent-mindedly while reading through reports.

Louis walks in and stops dead in his tracks right before the bed. He groans, “I'm going to die.”

With some difficulty Liam opens his eyes to look at him. “Hm?”

“I'm going to die,” Louis repeats.

“We're all going to die,” Nick replies. “What specifically will be your demise?”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Shut up,” he says, fondness in his voice. Then he points at Liam. “Liam will be! Liam, you're not wearing a shirt.”

Liam rubs at his eyes. “Yeah?”

“That's rude,” Louis says. Nick laughs quietly and bends over Liam to put his reports as well as his reading glasses down on the nightstand.

“It's not rude,” Liam argues.

“It is a bit,” Nick agrees.

“Why?” Liam sits up.

“Because,” Louis says, dropping down next to Liam. “You're extremely hot but your leg is still hurt so we can't have sex.”

Liam feels a lot more awake, all of a sudden.

And a lot more turned on. Just from hearing Louis mention sex.

To be fair, he mentioned it in relation to Nick and Liam which makes all the difference.

Nick kisses Liam's bare shoulder. “I've been trained in withstanding torture but this is still too much.”

It's not like Liam hasn't been thinking about it. Actually, he's been thinking about it constantly for weeks.

So it's not his fault he's already sporting a semi, is it?

“And,” Louis continues. “Nick and I can't even have sex because you're always here and that'd be mean.”

Liam shrugs, trying very hard to come off as casual. “I don't think that would be mean.”

Louis is usually the one who attacks without warning while Nick will always give Liam a moment to prepare before kissing him.

This time it's Nick's lips on his all of a sudden, but Liam can't say he doesn't appreciate the surprise. That would be an outright lie.

“You don't think that would be a bit rude?” Louis asks after a moment and Liam reluctantly separates from Nick.

He shakes his head. It's all or nothing, he decides. Being honest has always been worth it so far.

“No, it's not rude. Thinking about you two having sex is, well, hot.” He pauses to gather his courage. “One time… I mean, I know this is a shitty thing to do, but I heard you guys having sex through the wall once. And I kind of got off on it?”

It sounds worse when he says it out loud. “Sorry,” he adds quickly.

The grin that appears on Louis' face is absolutely shit-eating. Nick's matches.

“You did?!” Louis confirms. “Good to know I didn't almost shout myself hoarse for nothing!”

To Liam's astonishment Nick and Louis high-five.

“You did that on purpose?” Perhaps Liam should be a bit less surprised. He can't quite believe it.

“A little,” Nick admits, anything but remorseful.

Liam drops on his back and hides his face behind his hands. “I can't believe it.”

There's a hand on his chest, stroking carefully. Judging by size alone, it's probably Louis'.

“You don't know what I went through! I felt so bad, like the most terrible human alive. And you dickheads did it on purpose!”

“Sorry,” Louis says, pressing a kiss to Liam's belly. “People do stupid things when they're in love.”

“No, shut up,” Liam tells him.

Carefully, Nick pries Liam's hand off his face. “To be absolutely clear on this,” he says. “It was all Louis' idea. He made me do it. I'm completely innocent and you should only direct your anger towards him.”

“Traitor!” Louis yells and attacks Nick, rolling them over until he's sitting on Nick's hips. “How dare you sell me out like this?”

Liam rolls over on his side so he can watch better.

“Oh, Lou, we should try and see if we can be loud enough for Liam to hear,” Louis mocks in a fake deep voice that's obviously supposed to be Nick's, his face so close to Nick's that their noses are touching. He's holding him pinned to the bed by his wrists. “Wouldn't that be hot? Maybe he'd get hard or something. That would be so hot.”

Liam blushes.

“Stop embarrassing me in front of my new boyfriend, you pest. I want him to think I'm cool,” Nick says.

Louis bites at Nick's nose. “You're never cool,” he states and glances over at Liam. “Besides, _our_ new boyfriend is hard right now, from watching us.”

Embarrassed at being called out, Liam grabs a pillow and throws it at Louis' head.

Louis just laughs.

It's Nick who stares at Liam for a breathless moment and then asks, “Do you want to watch Lou and I--”

“Yeah,” Liam agrees.

He wants. If he can't join because of his leg, then that's what he wants.

Well, to be honest, he'd probably want it, even if his leg was fine. It's too hot to pass up on.

It takes a bit of organisation. Liam wants to stay on the bed with them, to be closer, to be able to touch them. But Nick and Louis are worried about accidentally hurting him, so Nick ends up carrying two kitchen chairs into the bedroom, one for Liam to sit on, and the other one to prop his legs up on.

It's dead unsexy.

Liam forgets about it very, very quickly when Nick and Louis start undressing each other.

They're doing it slowly, getting side-tracked and distracted by kissing every inch of new skin like they've never seen the other one naked before.

It's mesmerising to watch, Louis' lips leaving a small bruise on Nick's hips.

Liam wants nothing more than to reach out and just _touch_.

Nick's gaze keeps flitting between Louis, Liam and – the worst of all, the most arousing – the obvious bulge in Liam's boxer shorts.

When Louis lies flat on his back but raises his hips a little so Nick can pull down his underwear for him, Liam finally gives in and presses the palm of his hand to his own dick, just as he sees Louis' for the first time.

It's probably a strange thought to have about someone's dick but – it's lovely. Dark red at the tip and so, so hard against Louis' belly.

Liam can't quite stop the groan from escaping.

Both Nick's and Louis' gazes snap to him.

“Fuck,” Louis whispers, breathless already, his hips thrusting up involuntarily. “You're so hot.”

Nick holds eye contact with Liam as he ever so slowly leans down and takes the tip of Louis' dick into his mouth.

Louis reaches down to bury his hands in Nick's hair, messing it up completely, and Liam half-wonders if he's doing it on purpose just to fuck with Nick.

Then Nick hollows out his cheeks and takes Louis' deeper, and most, if not all, thoughts fly out of Liam's head. It's a _sight_.

Nick is still staring at Liam as he starts moving his head, his hands keeping Louis' thighs in position.

Louis curses and throws his head back, biting down hard on his lip.

Palming himself doesn't cut it anymore. Liam finally shoves his boxer shorts down, just far enough to get a good grip, and starts jerking himself off. If he's trying to keep in rhythm with Nick sucking Louis off, then, well, no one will notice.

Nick, the bastard, raises his eyebrows cockily.

“Could you possibly go any slower,” Louis complains, his own moans interrupting his words.

Nick pulls off. “Shut up, love,” he says and bites down on Louis' thigh.

For a lack of anything to hold onto, Liam balls his free hand into a fist. He's already leaking pre-come and uses it as lube, easing the glide of his other hand on his dick.

Louis pulls himself up on his elbows as Nick takes him back in and starts sucking him off again. He turns his head to the sight and cocks an eyebrow at the sight of Liam.

If possible, it just makes Liam harder.

Louis licks his lips and moans; Liam can't help but subconsciously copy the motion.

It's a lot to take in. Liam doesn't even know where to look, really. His gaze keeps flitting back and forth between Louis's face to where his dick enters Nick's mouth over and over again.

After what feels like only seconds but must have been way longer, Louis moans brokenly, his hips bucking up into Nick's mouth. Nick uses his hands to hold him down but doesn't falter in his rhythm – if anything, he speeds up.

Watching Louis come down Nick's throat is so incredibly hot that Liam has to take his hand off his dick for a moment just so he won't come yet as well.

Louis is holding Nick's head in place by his hair as his hips try to buck up one more time – but can't because Nick is still holding them down. There's a short string of curse words before Louis falls silent and comes down Nick's throat.

Nick swallows it all down. When he pulls off, Louis is breathing heavily and Nick wipes the back of his hand over his mouth to catch the last wayward drops of come.

Closing his eyes, Liam groans and speeds up his hand.

When he opens them back up again, feeling almost dizzy from how good it feels, Nick is sitting up on the bed, facing him. Louis is sitting next to him, a tired and pleased smile on his face, as he kisses the centre of Nick's chest and keeps jerking him off ever so slowly.

Liam's mouth drops open at the sight of Nick's dick in Louis' hand. It's, well, for a lack of a better description, quite a big dick.

Louis smirks at him and says, “I know.”

Theoretically, of course, Liam had been aware of the size of Nick's cock before now. He's seen him in only his boxer shorts or very tight trousers one too many times not to have noticed the bulge.

Still. It's very different, seeing it like this, framed by Louis' hand. He itches to touch.

“Nick,” Louis says, arching his eyebrows at Liam with a cheeky grin. “Do you think I could hurt Liam if I blew him? I mean, his leg's well out of the way and he wouldn't even have to move.”

Nick squeezes his eyes shut at that, groans, and comes spilling over Louis' hand and his own stomach without any further warning.

At the realisation that it had been the image that had done Nick in – the thought of Louis blowing Liam – Liam drops his hand immediately to his side, leaving his dick hard and aching to be touched.

Louis takes his sweet time snogging Nick and wiping his hand on his chest, earning a slap on the bum as he goes for that one, before he gets off the bed.

He doesn't drop to his knees immediately but instead sits down on Liam's lap first, careful to support his weight on his knees at Liam's side and not actually on Liam. Liam's hands go to his hips to hold him there almost subconsciously.

“Thanks for being hot,” Louis says nonsensically.

Liam doesn't complain when Louis leans forward to catch his mouth in a kiss while at the time reaching down to stroke Liam's dick painfully slowly. Okay, well, he does whine into his mouth. He can't exactly help it. He's so hard it hurts.

In the end, when Louis gets off Liam and goes down on his knees, it takes an embarrassingly short time for Liam to come. To be fair, he'd been wanking himself for a while now. Plus, Louis is supremely hot with a dick in his mouth – specifically, Liam's dick.

Liam is almost too transfixed by watching him to notice Nick leaning against the wall, still covered in his own come, watching them lazily. After a moment Nick crawls off the bed and comes to stand behind Liam, hugging him and resting his head on his shoulder but not before kissing Liam's cheek. It's an oddly sweet contrast to Louis sucking his dick.

What pushes Liam over the edge, though, is Nick reaching down to tangle his hand in Louis' hair, pushing him to take Liam just that tiny bit deeper.

Grabbing onto the edges of the chair he's sitting on, Liam throws his head back – narrowly avoiding accidentally head butting Nick – and comes.

Liam can't quite catch his breath even after Louis has pulled off and is now just resting his head on Liam's thigh, blinking up at him with a smile. There's smears of Liam's come on the corner of his mouth. Liam's arms feel too heavy to move to wipe them away, so Nick does after a moment.

Turning his head to the side, Liam rests his forehead against Nick's temple. Very quietly, he whispers, “fuck” because there's no other words to express how utterly sated and satisfied he's feeling.

“I love it when you curse,” Louis says, pressing a kiss to Liam's hip bone.

Nick laughs, slightly ruffling Liam's hair with it. He's still hugging him from behind like he's planning on never letting go. Liam is fine with that. “So much for Liam only watching,” he says.

“Yeah,” Louis says, beaming. “So much for that.”

–

As Liam walks into the bedroom, Louis is sitting on the floor, trying to unpack Liam's bag. Again.

“Stop fucking with my bag,” Liam says and crouches down to shove back in the shirts Louis had strewn all over the floor carelessly. Pig has made herself comfortable on a few of them. She's a bit offended when Liam makes her move so he can pack those, too.

“Don't go away, then,” Louis demands.

He's pouting like a petulant child. It should be a bit annoying because Louis has been behaving like this for more than a day now but Nick has warned Liam. Liam is absolutely prepared.

“I have to. You know that. Come on, let's go have breakfast, Nick is already waiting for us.”

Louis is staring at Liam's bag like he's trying to make it explode with the power of his mind.

“Give me a piggy back ride, at least.”

Acting put upon, Liam sighs heavily but fulfils Louis' wish. Liam is already fully dressed and ready for the day but Louis hasn't bothered to put on anything but underwear yet. It's nice to feel his sleepy-warm skin against his hands. Liam is going to miss him.

As soon as Liam lets Louis down in the kitchen, he bounds over to drop down on Nick's lap heavily. “Liam is going to leave me,” he complains. “At least you have to stay!”

Nick puts his piece of toast down and puts his arms around Louis. “Can't, I've got a mission. Gotta go save the world and all that.”

“You probably just strut around, feeling cool,” Louis protests. “You can do that here!”

Liam sits down next to them. One of Nick's hands finds his immediately and Liam can't help but smile into his cup of coffee.

“I have very important things to do,” Nick insists.

Rolling his eyes, Louis swings his legs over Liam's lap. It's not the most practical or comfortable way to sit down with three people to have breakfast but Liam figures Louis is allowed today. He puts his cup down and rests his free hand on Louis' bare ankle, his thumb stroking the skin carefully.

“Why did I even get several boyfriends? The only purpose was to have my second boyfriend still here when my first boyfriend leaves! And now you're leaving me both at once! How many boyfriends will I have to get before I'm not left behind like this? Fifty?” Louis laments.

Liam smiles. “Think that’d get a bit crowded, wouldn't it?”

Nick kisses Louis' temple before picking up his toast again. He says, “Besides, it's just bad luck that we're both leaving at the same time. We're not even on the same mission.”

That doesn't make it easier, at least not for Liam. Not only will he miss Louis but Nick as well. It's the first time they'll all be apart since they met. Liam feels weird about it but he's trying to put on a brave face.

“That just makes it worse,” Louis says. “Now I have to worry about two missions going well and both of you getting your asses back home safe.”

That's just the thing, isn't it? If they were leaving on any normal business trip, Louis probably wouldn't kick up a fuss like this. They're not, though. They're leaving on dangerous potentially life-threatening missions.

Despite the fact that Nick and Liam are the ones working as secret agents, it's Louis, out of all three of them, who regularly wakes up in a sweat, haunted by nightmares of either or both of them dying. It's hard to hold him, then, in the middle of the night in the utter darkness of the bedroom. Liam feels insanely guilty for putting him through this and he knows Nick does, too.

Sometimes Liam thinks about how much easier Louis could have had it if he had fallen in love with someone – or several people, even – with a normal job. How much less heartache he'd have to go through.

Liam is too selfish to wish things were any different.

They eat their breakfast – well, Nick and Liam do. Louis claims he's not hungry just yet and will eat with the kids at school later. Liam isn't sure he believes that. He very briefly considers sending Niall a text to ask him to make sure Louis eats.

It's still dark outside when Nick and Liam eventually have to leave. Technically Liam could get there ten minutes after Nick as his briefing starts later, but they decided it was easier to just travel there together.

When they've both stuffed all the last minute items like tooth brushes into their bags and said goodbye to Pig and Bruce who seem to understand what's going on judging by the way they lick any bit of skin they can reach, they walk back into the hallway to say goodbye to Louis as well. It's going to be infinitely harder than with the pets.

Except Louis is pulling a shirt over his head. It's one of Liam's shirts. He's also wearing jeans he wasn't five minutes ago.

“What are you doing?” Nick asks curiously, letting go of Liam's hand to pull down Louis' shirt fully over his chest. “You don't have to leave for another hour, at least.”

Louis shrugs and grabs the car keys. “I'll drive you there.”

They had decided yesterday that Nick and Liam were gonna get a cab so that they could all take their time saying goodbye in the flat.

Seems like Louis has other plans now because he says, “What are you waiting for? Go.” He opens the front door for them while simultaneously slipping into his shoes.

There's no arguing with him.

Liam stops in his tracks when he's finished stowing his bag into the trunk. He's not quite sure who is supposed to sit where – well, apart from Louis in the driver's seat, obviously.

Nick closes the trunk door for him and takes a moment to kiss Liam sweetly on the lips, apparently not caring who sees. “You take shotgun,” he offers.

So Liam does. As soon as he's reversed out of the driveway and onto the street, Louis grabs for his hand over the console. Liam meets Nick's eyes in the rearview mirror just as Louis says, “You've got to promise me something before I let you go.” His eyes are firmly fixed on the street.

Nick knows what that means, it seems, because he leans forward the tiniest bit. “I promise not to die.”

Satisfied, Louis nods. “You too, Liam.”

Liam frowns, glancing from Louis to Nick and back. “We can't really promise that.” It's not under their control, for one.

No one reacts until Louis has to stop at a red flashlight and looks over at him. “Like I don't know? It makes me feel better. Please, Liam.”

Liam drags a hand through his hair. He thinks of the fact that they're not supposed to contact anyone while on missions. Louis won't even know how they're doing until they're back.

Quickly, before the light turns green, Liam says, “I won't die. Promise.”

When they arrive at the parking lot in front of the head quarters, Louis shuts off the engine and takes off his seatbelt before he turns to Liam.

It's Liam's turn to say goodbye first, then. He tugs Louis into his arms over the console and holds him close. He's not sure what to say, exactly.

Louis knows what to say. “Go kick some bad guys' asses. Bet you look hot doing that.”

Liam chuckles. “That's my sole aim. Looking hot.”

Pulling back, Louis kisses his forehead. “Well, you're very successful at that, then, I've got to say.”

Liam's heart is heavy. He takes his time, kissing Louis properly and thoroughly, trying to memorise the feeling of Louis' lips on his. His heart beats in an odd uneven rhythm but Liam is used to that. It's the Louis-Tomlinson-effect.

“Meeting you was the best thing that's happened to me,” Liam says and almost adds _ever_ at the end of that sentence. Louis' eyes light up in some sort of odd contrast to the sad turn of his mouth.

“I'm disgustingly in love with you, Li.”

It's harder than Liam had anticipated, after that, to let go of Louis, open the car door, and get out.

“See you,” Louis says.

“See you soon,” Liam promises.

He leans with his back against the car as Nick climbs to his abandoned seat to say goodbye to their boyfriend himself.

Liam doesn't want to watch. It'll just make everything even worse.

Instead, he stares at his shoes and tries to calm down. He needs to be focused on the mission, even though he doesn't know what it is, yet. It's futile, he's aware of that. All his careful preparation and calming down will go out the window once he has to say goodbye to Nick.

After Nick has exited the car as well, they both grab their bags from the trunks and watch Louis drive away. It's hard.

They enter the building and by some sort of unspoken agreement walk into the first toilet they come across on their way to the conference rooms where the briefings take place. Nick locks the door, drops his bag, and pulls Liam into his arms.

Liam takes a moment to breathe against Nick's shoulder, taking in his scent.

“I was gonna say be careful and don't try to play the hero, but that'd be a bit hypocritical,” Nick says and sighs.

“Don't play the hero,” Liam repeats back at him, even though that's kind of the entire point of their job. Still.

“I called Zayn last night.” Nick pulls back to look Liam in the eyes, his hands still resting on his shoulders. “At like half three. He was proper pissed at me.”

Liam can imagine. “Why?”

“He's with you on your mission, isn't he? I asked him to, like, I don't know, protect you.”

Feeling warm all over, and curiously sad, Liam says, “I don't need protection.”

“Yeah,” Nick agrees. “That's what he said.”

Liam surges forward and kisses Nick. It's been weeks now and his lips still tingle whenever he gets to do that. It's entirely possible they'll always do that.

“Going away on a mission is so much easier than letting someone else go,” Nick confesses finally, resting his forehead against Liam's.

Liam smiles, even though he doesn't feel like it. “Just think of Louis having to let both of us go.”

“He's always been braver than me,” Nick says, shrugging.

Liam knows it's time to leave. Nick's briefing will start soon.

“Take care of yourself. You're not allowed to leave my life ever again now that you've found your way in,” Nick warns him.

“You're sweet,” Liam replies and earns a laugh for echoing what Nick and Louis tell him constantly. “I'm not leaving.”

Nick kisses him once more, then they untangle from each other.

Picking his bag back up, Nick is the first to leave. Liam stays for a moment longer, staring at himself in the mirror. He breathes in deeply.

There’s a sadness in his chest but it's right next to the ever-present happiness he feels these days – happiness at being so, so lucky to have found Nick and Louis – and Liam thinks, it'll be alright.


End file.
